$8.5m for Emerging Market Text Research Tool

In the US, crowdsourcing specialist txteagle has raised $8.5m in Series A funding, which it will use to roll out a market research and advertising platform designed to reach consumers in less developed countries via text message.

Founded in 2009 by MIT faculty members Nathan Eagle and Ben Olding, Boston and San Francisco-based txteagle claims access to a network of more than 2.1 billion mobile phone subscribers across almost 100 developing countries.

The firm's 'GroundTruth' mobile data collection platform aims to provide insight into the opinions, needs and behaviors of consumers in emerging markets. Those qualified to participate in surveys are compensated with free airtime.

'The core focus of the company is on providing global brands with better insight into their next billion consumers in emerging markets, and we're trying to use the mobile phone as a mechanism to illuminate these markets,' Eagle explains.

txteagle currently employs about 10 people, and plans to grow to 15 or 20 by the end of this year. One of its aims is to help companies and organizations gather information from and communicate with consumers in less-developed countries - existing clients for this include the United Nations.

'The current way of getting an understanding of what's happening in these markets, is to fly in a team of people and drive to all kinds of remote places - what we call the 'Land Rover methodology'. It's very expensive to get any kind of insight that way,' adds Eagle.

The firm previously secured a seed round worth $1.2m. This latest investment has been led by Spark Capital, with support from previous investors Flywheel Ventures, RBC Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, and New York-based angel investor Esther Dyson. As a result, Spark Capital founder Todd Dagres has joined txteagle's Board.

Web site: www.txteagle.com .