LexisNexis Owner Leads $38 Million Investment in Quid

(Bloomberg) -- Quid Inc., a startup that helps companies analyze large volumes of text from news, social media and the web, raised $37.5 million in venture funding, the company plans to announce Monday.

The deal was led by REV Ventures, the investment arm of LexisNexis owner RELX Group Plc, which contributed about $10 million. Other investors include Julian Roberson, the founder of Tiger Management Corp.; Henry Kravis, co-founder of KKR & Co.; Lixil Group Corp.; Artis Ventures; Salesforce Ventures; and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, according to Quid. The startup also took out $8 million in venture debt. It declined to provide a valuation.

Bob Goodson started the San Francisco-based company in 2007, then called YouNoodle. In 2010, it rebranded as Quid. Its software takes in data from Twitter, company websites, news databases such as LexisNexis and other sources, and helps customers analyze changes in their industries. Goodson said most customers use Quid to determine what the public thinks and feels about brands or to explore technology and company trends.

Bloomberg Businessweek worked with Goodson’s startup in 2009 to compile a list of the 50 most promising startups based on particular industries or markets its software suggested were going to grow quickly in the future. Palantir Technologies Inc., Spotify Technology SA and Twitch were among the more prescient picks. Quid helped compile an updated list for Bloomberg last year.

Goodson said communications agencies and management consultants, such as Boston Consulting Group, have become the biggest clients for Quid’s software, which costs around $25,000 per user per year. The company generated $28 million in sales over the last year, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the company’s financial details are private.

Quid started raising the latest funding round more than a year and a half ago. Goodson said he decided to leave the door open to other investors who might want to buy in at the current share prices. New backers showed up over time, including REV Ventures, which agreed to invest several months ago. Kevin Brown, a founding partner at REV Ventures, said Quid offers an important way to make sense of an ever-quickening river of “unstructured data” being made each day, as compared to structured data that comes in numbers and spreadsheets: “There’s an explosion of unstructured data and no one knows how to handle it.”

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack

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