Insightpool Acquires Next Principles For Smarter Selling On Social Media

Social marketing company Insightpool has acquired a startup called Next Principles.

Insightpool bills itself as a “the social relationship intelligence platform,” which basically means that it can identify social media influencers and suggest ways that a marketer might connect with them. Next Principles, meanwhile, has developed what it calls a “Smart Sense” algorithm that’s analyzes social media data to understand consumer intent.

CEO Devon Wijesinghe said me that by integrating Next Principles’ product, Insightpool can help marketers get smarter about actually driving sales, for example by targeting their efforts at consumers who are actually ready to make a purchase.

“Conencting the two of them is huge,” he said. “Marketers are getting pulled more into sales, but social has largely been siloed until now.”

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Next Principles had raised $3.2 million in venture funding from investors including Birchmere Ventures, according to CrunchBase.

“Almost all” of the Next Principles team will be joining Insightpool, Wijesinghe added, and they will remain in Silicon Valley. (Insightpool is based in Atlanta.) He hopes to launch an integrated product in the second quarter of this year, but he also plans to keep NextPrinciples available as a standalone option.

And while this is Insightpool’s first acquisition, Wijesinghe said he wants to be “very acquisitive” moving forward.