Alterian Acquires Techrigy, The "Google Alerts On Steroids"

Alterian, a global provider of integrated marketing solutions, has added social media monitoring to its suite of services in one swoop with the acquisition of Techrigy.

The latter is a Pitssford, NY-based startup that markets an enterprise-grade SMM and analysis solution called SM2, targeted at PR and marketing pros who want to keep tabs on what is being said online about the companies and brands they represent. The terms of the acquisition remain undisclosed.

Last February, we covered Techrigy for the first time when the company announced it had tracked over 1 billion online conversations with its software. Back then, we used the metaphor “Google Alerts on Steroids” to describe the service.

SM2 enables you to track conversations, reviews and positive/negative sentiment for your brands, clients (and your competitors) in social media: blogs, wikis, Twitter, social networks, etc. virtually in real-time. Instead of merely returning keyword search results like most generic search engines can, SM2 also provides you with a complete set of analysis tools such as charting with comparisons, demographics, geo-location, sentiment and drill-down reports.

Check the announcement blog post for a little bit of history about Techrigy, which was founded in 2006:

Like so many startups Techrigy began with humble beginnings. Serial entrepreneur, Aaron Newman and Jay Mari started the company in a basement. After a time they moved into an office with no windows. (Jay showed me the building last week when I was in Rochester, NY & shared that detail.) Techrigy’s present office space does have windows but they’ve outgrown the space. A few months ago Techrigy acquired Andiamo Systems and we added staff in San Francisco. It’s now time for another big change as Techrigy moves forward (including new office space!)

There you go: from basement to acquisition in 3 years.