New York-based Sumpto announced that it was able to secure USD 350,000 from investors which included SocialStarts.net and Nick Brien, the former Chief Executive Officer of McCANN Group. The startup launched in July last year said it would use the proceeds to attract more partners to its platform. According to data from TechCrunch, Sumpto has raised USD 425,000 in funds to date.
Founded by Ben Kosinski , Sumpto is a company that seeks to measure the social influence of college students. The platform measures the top media influences on college campuses using various factors, such as the number of their Facebook followers and Twitter followers. The tool then gives a score from 1 to 100 for each student which will then be used by the brands to be able to connect with these them-for a fee, of course. The brands can send their promotional initiatives to the influencers for free, hoping that the latter will sing praises for the product to their friends and followers on social media. However, the students are not required to promote the product or tweet about it in return for the free item. The platform allows advertisers to have actual people advocating for them to their target clients.
Sumpto said it had 17,500 influencers on its roster and has partnered with over 70 brands. All in all, the brands have given out rewards to more than 1,800 students. To be able to register to the Sumpto platform, students must provide a valid .edu email address.
According to a TechCrunch report, college students comprised more than USD 120 billion in discretionary spending each year. Sumpto's platform which does not only gauge student influence but also create a network to share that helps spread that influence may enable it to capitalize on the large collegiate market, TechCrunch reported.
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