Emotion measurement business Affectiva, which is backed by a division of UK-based communications company WPP, wins $12m in Series C financing.
Other investors in the round included Horizons Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
As part of the financing, Frank Meehan at Horizons Ventures will join Affectiva’s board, while Mary Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, will join as an Affectiva board observer.
In previous Series B funding in July 2011, WPP led a $5.7 m funding round for Affectiva. WPP’s consumer insight division, Kantar, was joined in the series B round by Myrian Capital.
Affectiva was set up in 2009 by US university Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists Rosalind Picard and Rana el Kaliouby, based on research from the MIT Media Lab.
Affectiva previously raised $2m in 2010 in Series A funding, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Affectiva uses computers to test what people feel to improve products and experiences. Affectiva said it would use the financing to speed up the development and marketing of Affdex, its emotion recognition software. Affdex reads emotional states from facial expressions using a webcam.