PR analytics startup TrendKite raises $16.3M

TrendKite announced today that it has raised $16.3 million in Series D funding.

The company says it helps businesses understand the impact of their news coverage and public relations strategy — like which articles are driving the most awareness of their brand, the total audience that’s being reached by the coverage and the sentiment of that coverage.

TrendKite also shows you how much of the discussion you control versus your competitors. (Speaking of competitors: Another PR analytics startup, AirPR, announced a $5 million round earlier this week.)

The company says it works with companies including Nike, Campbell’s Soup, Hershey’s, Asana and Squarespace. It also says its annual recurring revenue has grown to tens of millions of dollars.

The round was led by Adams Street Partners, with participation from Battery, Noro-Moseley and Mercury Fund. TrendKite has now raised a total of $35 million.

“The use of proceeds will obviously go to continuing the amazing growth we have achieved by quantifying the impact PR has on the business,” CEO Erik Huddleston told me via email. “However, we see a bigger opportunity to tightly integrate PR into the rest of marketing. We see that as the key to redefining PR as the earned media leg of the integrated marketing stool.”