Research

Marketers will continue to reap benefits

Sysomos – a U of T start-up company that specializes in bridging business intelligence with social media – has been acquired by Marketwire, a newswire service that deals with press release distribution, media contact management, multimedia and media monitoring services.

“The unique product and service platform of Sysomos helps organizations – including public relations professionals, marketers and investors – quickly customize marketing campaigns by providing immediate tools to measure, monitor, understand and engage with the vast social media landscape,” said co-founder Nick Koudas, a professor of computer science at U of T.

Sysomos (a Greek word meaning ‘everything together’) got its start in 2005, when Koudas and his graduate student, Nilesh Bansal approached U of T’s Innovations and Partnerships Office (IPO) with their business idea, which was based on Bansal’s masters project BlogScope.

IPO supported Koudas and Bansal by securing and protecting their intellectual property, developing a commercialization plan and raising government funds from the Ontario Research and Commercialization Program. The office also raised capital from the Ontario Centers of Excellence’s Investor Accelerator Fund program. These resources enabled Koudas and Bansal to create the user interface for their product, which ultimately aligned Sysomos with its first customers and investors.

“Without the university’s initial support and guidance, we wouldn’t be where we’re at today,” says Koudas.

While social media monitoring and analysis constitutes a huge sector of the global economy, Bansal says Sysomos offers a distinct difference.

“Everything we do is automated. We can quickly find out who’s doing the talking, where the conversations are taking place, as well as who the key influencers are and how best to get their attention. Many companies are doing this on a manual level only. By automating the process, we save our clients time, money and resources,” said Bansal.

Sysomos serves a diverse set of high-profile clients including boutique and international agencies, mid-sized companies and some of the world’s biggest brands, such as Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Disney and Shell. Koudas and Bansal will remain on as president and chief technology officer respectively. Both Sysomos and Marketwire are headquartered in downtown Toronto.

“U of T is proud of Sysomos’ success and takes pride in helping start-ups like Sysomos take shape,” said Professor Paul Young, U of T’s vice-president (research). “This isn’t the first success story to come out of the Department of Computer Science’s research and innovation. In April, BumpTop – a company that gives desktops a 3D interface – was purchased by Google. This type of commercial spin off activity will only grow in future years, as now – with the partnership of MaRS Innovation – our capacity to assist new start-ups has significantly increased. Today, there are 125 active U of T start-ups across the whole spectrum of science and technology, as well as social innovation. Congratulations to them all.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Marketwire-Acquires-Sysomos-1286185.htm

Tags: Commercialization