'Survey-wall' Company Gets $1.5m Funding

San Francisco-based online consumer survey specialist Survata (formerly known as NomoPay) has completed a seed funding round, raising $1.5m for product development and expansion of its sales efforts.

Founded last year by childhood friends and University of Notre Dame alumni Aaron Wenger and Chris Kelly, Survata operates a network of 'survey-walls' on affiliate sites - these are similar to pay-walls except that a short survey must be completed to get access to free content including articles, music, videos and downloads. More than two million consumers now access sites via these 'walls' each month.

The pair say that by distributing surveys in this manner, Survata is able to engage hard to reach demographic groups for a wide range of studies to uncover how consumers use a product or service, test a questionnaire design, or identify trends in consumer behavior.

New funds have been raised by PivotNorth Capital and SoftTech, whose Managing Partner Jeff Clavier says Survata's technology will disrupt the online panel industry.

Web site: www.survata.com .