The ‘media monitoring’ space is up and coming in the tech world, with companies such as Cision, Factiva, and Meltwater slowly rising, but they may all take a backseat with the arrival of Signal Media, or so it appears. Based in London, the company’s pitch is oriented around its use of AI in its claim to be able to offer more certainty that a news source can be trusted and that a story is relevant, thus helping to reduce the impact of rumor and false stories on business decision-making.
To fund a U.S. sales push in 2017 and further develop its product, Signal Media has raised £5.8 million in new funding. Investors in the round included MMC Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Frontline Ventures, Reed Elsevier Ventures, and Local Globe. The inflow of cash will also be used to further expand the startup’s current 50-member team. Signal Media co-founder and CEO David Benigson said,
The internet is the largest data-set ever created. But rather than improve the quality of information out there, it’s actually just made it almost impossible to get a relevant and complete picture of what’s happening. Quantity has drowned out quality. And in a 24-second news-cycle, business leaders need constant access to hyper-relevant information so that they’re making decisions based on fact, not falsehood. They need the complete picture to be certain that they’re making decisions that reflect reality and not their assumptions.
That is where Signal Media’s product comes in. Its AI claims to let businesses track changes to their world in real-time -– from competitors to regulation, to their own reputation –- with certainty and clarity. Benigson added,
We give businesses the information they need to know and the information they didn’t know they needed, to make smarter, faster business decisions.
At this point, the information that Signal Media tracks is limited to news in print, broadcast, and online media, but the startup says it’s already developing tools to look at real-time changes to tax and financial regulation. Specifically, the software sources information from 2.7 million websites, 67,000 print feeds, and 300 broadcast channels. It can also auto-translate titles from over 90 countries in over 40 languages.
Signal largely works within the financial services, legal and professional services sectors. Its initial focus has been on transforming how PR and communications teams analyze media coverage concerning themselves and the wider business landscape. Bengison explained,
Signal goes beyond monitoring, letting our users search for bespoke topics and themes within the world’s media. Our AI lets us train the system to recognise (for instance) when someone changes job, when an M&A transaction takes place or when a reputational threat is emerging.
It is interesting to note that Signal Media’s other co-founder is Dr. Miguel Martinez. Initially joining the company as part of a KTP [Knowledge Transfer Partnership] to develop his research at the University of Essex, he is now the startup’s full-time Head of Research. Benigson concludes,
We know that AI and machine learning are still in the nascent stages of their life-cycles – having a dedicated research arm of Signal is what sets us apart, and what keeps us cutting edge.
