Affectiva, a Waltham, MA-based company that develops emotion measurement and communication technology, has closed a $5.7m Series B financing.
Investors include WPP, via its consumer insight division, Kantar and Myrian Capital.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its development and marketing efforts for the Affdex software, a software solution for emotion recognition, as well as to advance the Q™, a wearable biosensor.
Founded in 2009 by MIT scientists Rosalind W. Picard and Rana el Kaliouby, and led by CEO Dave Berman, Affectiva aims to use computing to help understand how people feel in order to improve products and experiences.
According to the company, Affdex reads emotional states such as liking and attention from facial expressions using a webcam. The software employs advanced computer vision and machine learning techniques to recognize and automate the analysis of non-verbal responses, and applies patented methods to interpret viewers’ emotional responses at scale.
Q Sensor is a wearable biometric sensor used by more than 100 universities and corporations to track excitement, engagement, stress and anxiety.
In conjunction with the funding, WPP and Myrian Capital will take a seat on Affectiva’s board.
FinSMEs
19/07/2011
