EmSense, the company that reads your brain's reactions to ads, gets boost
EmSense — the San Francisco company that has created a device to read your mind to assess how you react to TV commercials and other media — has raised $9 million more in a third round of funding.
The company says it is trying to improve on established neuroscience technology called “EEG (Electroencephalography) recording” by offering a better way to tell marketing directors and video game developers which parts of commercials or video games people don’t like. The company gets this data by paying people to be guinea pigs — to wear its EEG-sensing headsets and watch TV or play video games. Emsense then measures their brainwaves and other physiological reactions.
Technology Partners led the round, and was joined by existing investor the Foundry Group.
The company said the funding will help it support its market research partners as well as help it develop a large bio-sensory “in-home panel” — the first of its kind.
“We believe that neuromarketing is now mainstream and is poised for explosive growth,” said Roger Quy, general partner with Technology Partners, in a statement. He pointed out that he is one of the only venture capitalists with a PhD in neuroscience and a research background in neurotechnology.
There are other companies trying to do something similar. Neurofocus of Berkeley is one.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
