Cision acquires Factmata to power AI rollout

Cision, a global comprehensive communications platform, has acquired Factmata Limited, an advanced AI social and news media analytics product used to track online narratives to help monitor brand reputation.

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Cision acquires Factmata

Overview

London-based Factmata’s award-winning technology delivers accurate and unbiased insights helping brands, agencies, and organizations better understand the online world and which conversations are gaining traction.

Factmata applies AI to surface narratives driving online conversations, to detect risky and harmful narratives earlier than a human can, and to identify impactful influencers driving the conversations and understand their stance.

Headquartered in Chicago, Cision’s roots go back to 1867 selling directories in Illinois. Cision has a long M&A history, and today’s group was born out of a friendly American-Swedish merger. Since then, it has been very acquisitive, adding PR tech brands including PRNewswire, Gorkana and Brandwatch.

Cision was taken off the stock market in 2020 and sold to Platinum Equity in a $2.7bn transaction. Since then, Cision has made 2-3 acquisitions a year

The problem

In 2017, a trio of leading machine-learning experts co-founded Factmata to detect fake news, hyperpartisan content and hate speech online. Start-up funding attracted big investor names including Shark Tank’s (the American Dragon’s Den) Mark Cuban, Google parent Alphabet, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, and Twitter co-founder Christopher “Biz” Stone.

As AI tools took off, Factmata pivoted from content-flagging to monitoring all kinds of online narratives – enabling brands to act faster to counter misinformation. Although the back-end technology was highly advanced, scaling up proved challenging for new CEO Antony Cousins, and the headcount went from a high of 17 down to seven.

“We believe our narrative monitoring technology has the potential to change the way brands do business by better understanding themselves through the lens of how media and consumers perceive them.

“Cision will enable us to apply our AI to one of the richest media databases in the world, pioneering a new era of media monitoring for businesses looking to be ahead of the curve.”

Antony Cousins

Factmata CEO

The solution

After $4m of backing, Factmata was well-known in its niche, and started to receive several approaches from potential acquirers. 

Antony was referred to CapEQ’s Douglas Edmunds by a mutual acquaintance, and the pair got to work on a tight timeline to organise the business for sale.

Nine months after signing up, Factmata sold to Cision and was integrated into the PR tech group’s AI division, Cision One. Better still, all seven AI developers were redeployed within Cision platforms.

An uncertain moment had turned into an amazing career opportunity for the developers.

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Stats

7
Factmata jobs safeguarded and careers enhanced by this acquisition
100K
the # PR professionals using Cision technology
9
months to do this deal start to finish
14
acquisitions made by Cision to date ranging from $1m to $800m

The Story of Factmata: My Acquisition Journey

In this video, Factmata’s CEO Antony Cousins shares the story behind selling Factmata to Cision in 2022, reflecting on the challenges, lessons, and decisions that shaped the journey. Driven by a mission to tackle misinformation, Antony took on the CEO role, ultimately concluding that integrating Factmata’s AI into a larger company would make the biggest impact.

Throughout, Antony maintained transparency with his team, meticulously prepared for the sale, and sought the right acquirer for both business growth and team advancement. Now in his new role at Cision, he reflects on the rewarding shift to more balance and quality time with family, as well as the key takeaways for founders considering a sale.

 

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