[Techtaffy Newsdesk]
MIT Media Lab spun-off startup Affectiva has secured $12 million in Series C financing, backed by Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Digital Growth Fund, with participation from existing investors. As a part of the financing, Frank Meehan at Horizons Ventures will join Affectiva’s board of directors and Mary Meeker, a partner at KPCB, will join as an Affectiva board observer.
Affectiva was founded in 2009 by professor Rosalind W. Picard, and research scientist Rana el Kaliouby. The company builds technology that help detect emotional states, including Affdex, an automated facial coding platform, and Q Sensor, a wearable biometric sensor.
Affectiva will use the new funds to accelerate Affdex development of emotional insights for all forms of online video content, including advertisements, trailers, TV shows and movies, says the company.
Affectiva previously raised $7.7 million from WPP, Myrian Capital and the Peder Wallenberg Charitable Trust, represented by Lingfield. The company has also won several National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants.