Tech

CrowdTwist Raises $6 Million To Reward People For Dropping Brand Names In Their Social Status Messages

Read in app
Irving Fain CrowdTwist
Irving Fain is cofounder of CrowdTwist 

CrowdTwist, a TechStars NYC startup, just raised a $6 million Series A round from Softbank Capital, Fairhaven Capital, kbs+p Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, and a few angel investors.

The New York-based startup works with brands to reward fans across online, social and mobile channels. It connects to brands' websites, Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter accounts, and keeps track of all fan/brand interaction.

It then provides brands with metrics to track their most loyal promoters and helps them derive a social media ROI. CrowdTwist has partnerships with LiveNation and JCPenney; last week it relaunched singer Kelly Clarkson's official fan site.

CrowdTwist was founded in 2009 by Irving Fain, Josh Bowen, and Mike Montero. This recent round of financing makes it the second breakout TechStars NYC company. Earlier this summer, fellow Techstars alumni OnSwipe, an app-like experience for publishers, raised a $5 million Series A round.

Read next

Alyson is the Editor-in-Chief and CCO at Fortune.  She was previously a co Editor-in-Chief overseeing Business Insider's tech and business coverage.She joined Business Insider in July 2008 as the company's sixth employee. She started as a sales planner before joining the editorial team in 2010, where she became a startup reporter and was first to cover some of today's largest tech companies, including Pinterest, Tinder, Instagram, Uber and Snap. Alyson rose to become a senior correspondent, then Executive Editor.She was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider in 2016, at which point she became the youngest and only woman to run a global business publication. Under her leadership, the business division has grown to hundreds of  millions of monthly readers.Alyson was a host of  Insider's conferences and launched a podcast, "Success! How I Did It," where she interviewed influencers ranging from Sheryl Sandberg to Steve Ballmer about their career paths (subscribe on iTunes here).She has appeared on ABC, Good Morning America, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, and CBC, and she has interviewed media personalities such as Megyn Kelly, technology leaders like Fred Wilson, political leaders like John Brennan, and sports star LeBron James. She is a judge for the prestigious Gerald Loeb Awards in business journalism, and has been named one of Min's Rising Stars in Media, as well as Folio's 2017 Top Women in Media.She graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she majored in psychology and advertising.You can read some of her investigative articles here:— Leaked videos reveal the true founding story of Snapchat— The founder who dumped Jared Kushner: Inside the phone call that left the White House star in a fit of rage— The downfall of billion-dollar startup, Fab— How a startup that raised the largest seed round in Silicon Valley history blew itself up before it even launched— The dark side of Facebook, where people lie, cheat, and make millions— A profile of Uber's controversial CEO, Travis Kalanick— The mystery of Jody Sherman, a founder who was driven to suicide and left behind a shocking business disasterDisclosure: Alyson owns bitcoin and Snap. She is also an investor in The Spun, a sports-media startup founded by her husband.