By Meg GrahamGeofeedia, a Chicago company that helps agencies and organizations collect location-based social media intelligence, has raised $17 million in funding.The round, the company’s largest so far, was led by Boston-based growth equity firm Silversmith Capital Partners and included previous investors. Geofeedia CEO Phil Harris said the funding will help the company continue to build on its technology, which lets customers monitor social media posts and other data tied to a specific location. The company also plans to grow its team.The company’s more than 500 customers include businesses or organizations in the public sector, media, corporate operations and marketing. Pricing for yearly subscriptions to the platform varies on the amount of data and users, the company said.Harris said the company plans to expand the platform’s reach in powering marketing campaigns. He gave the example of using the platform to find people at a Cubs game. The company could use social media data to identify social handles for those individuals, then target those fans in a paid Twitter ad campaign for a retailer.
“That has yielded really powerful results for them,” Harris said. “With the new capital, we’ll be able to expand those new areas and develop new businesses within Geofeedia.”The company will also continue to integrate new social streams as well as companies’ own data into the platform, Harris said.Geofeedia, founded in 2011, also plans to add 50 staffers to its team of 60 before the end of the year. The company has other offices in Indianapolis and in Naples, Fla.Silversmith managing partner and co-founder Todd MacLean will join Geofeedia’s board of directors.