Klout Uses Influence To Raise $8.5 M

Social measurement startup Klout has secured $8.5 million, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. With the new funding, announced Monday, Klout says it plans to expand its engineering team to include more online services in addition to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It also plans to expand the consumer experience to help users make more sense of their online reputation, and potentially make better use of it, said Joe Fernandez, Klout co-founder and CEO.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Fernandez said Monday. "We will need to greatly expand the number of services that are analyzed in calculating the Klout Score and provide a much richer consumer experience."

Klout purports to measure "influence" across the social Web. Specifically, the startup analyzes social network user data and identifies influential individuals based on the impact of their opinions, links, recommendations and other online content.

Klout makes this data available in a variety of ways. The Klout.com consumer site is a consumer destination, while the Klout API powers roughly 1,000 companies. Klout also provides tools to help companies -- including Disney, Audi and Fox -- interact with and interpret this valuable influencer data.

The investment is part of Kleiner's Fund, which earmarked $250 million for promising social startups. In turn, Kleiner partner William "Bing" Gordon will be joining Klout's board of directors.

Additional investors include Greycroft Partners, ff Asset Management, Paige Craig, Howard Lindzon, Thomas McInerney, and Bobby Yazdani.

The San Francisco-based startup previously raised $1.5 million in angel funding.

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