Irish tech founder in Hong Kong snags €1.32m seed capital

Hong Kong tech start-up Lamplight Analytics, which provides brand information through social media and was cofounded by Dubliner Fergus Clarke, has received $1.49 million (€1.32 million) in seed funding.

The start-up launched in November last year after chief operating officer Clarke, whose background is in market research, along with chief executive Sam Olsen and chief technology officer Nathan Pacey saw a gap, and realised that with the wealth of social media data available they could draw insights that could be used to support decisions on marketing, product development, distribution and pricing.

“We created a platform that aggregates what people are saying across millions of social media websites in nearly 200 languages and technology that draws meaning from these posts,” he said.

"We put together a prototype and showed it to friends in the investment community. Through introductions provided by them, we secured the backing of a VC fund, Vectr Ventures, and raised the rest of our seed round from private equity."

Asia is so diverse economically, culturally and linguistically and with the recent slowdown in China, global businesses are starting to realise that a deeper understanding of the region will be crucial if they are to maintain their growth, he said.

The Lamplight team will use the seed funding to further develop its proprietary technology and build-out its sales and account management functions.

“Our ambition is to become the leading provider of social data insights in Asia by the end of 2016, and a global player thereafter. Naturally I’d love to open an office in Dublin at some point.”