• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, March 8, 2016

Social media analytics outfit Crimson Hexagon has raised $20 million in additional equity funding in a new round of investment led by Sageview Capital, which previously invested $17.5 million, bringing Crimson’s total funding to date to $37.5 million.

With spending on social media marketing growing at an impressive clip, brands and agencies are turning to analytics providers like Crimson for insights into customer attitudes and market trends, based on posts and conversations.

Founded in 2007, Crimson differentiates itself from other social media analytics firms by going beyond simple keyword tracking and linguistic sentiment analysis to look at a range of other data about social media users, in order to provider a more in-depth portrait of consumers and their motivations. This deeper understanding is enabled by Crimson’s archive of almost a trillion social media posts of all types collected since its founding, which customers can mine to understand historical social media trends over time.

Also unlike many of its competitors, Crimson doesn’t offer any automated marketing services on its own, although it has integrated its data services with providers like Hootsuite. It’s worth noting that companies are also using Crimson’s analytics for disciplines outside marketing, including public relations and product development.

According to the company, over the last year its customer base has grown by more than 75% and now numbers over 10,000, including big names like Walmart, Starbucks and NBC. It has grown to over 100 employees and has offices in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and London.

The company has been introducing new products to keep pace with the changing nature of social media communications. Last year, for example, it unveiled a new image analytics service as part of its ForSight analytics platform. Among other capabilities the product allows marketers to see how and where consumers are sharing images of their logos, even when the brand isn’t mentioned by name.