Social voice platform Qwips announced today the company secured $1.25 million in series A funding, led by Shawn Landgraf of Magnus Partners and Allan Watson of NYC Trading Floor.
Qwips, formerly known as Blurts, will use the investment to expand its services, particularly in regards to mobile. Qwips users can add sound to their online interactions, for example to voice caption photos, voice tag tweets and Facebook posts, and to create and share threaded voice conversations.
From a business perspective, Qwips enables publishers, brands and marketers to integrate shareable and trackable voices into their sites. Additionally, when users share those Qwips via social media channels, the platform enables recipients to respond via QwipBacks, the company’s voice-response technology in what the company calls asynchronous short-form conversations.
“People share their lives online,” Landgraf said. “Yet, right now, that sharing is limited to static text, photos, and videos. Voice is the missing component, and Qwips’ social voice platform solves that problem.” Landgraf said. He added that marketers and brands could use Qwips to literally share their voice with their audiences, increasing authenticity and engagement.
Landgraf’s Magnus Partners is a management-consulting firm with expertise in domestic and international private equity, investment banking, and business development matters. NYC Trading Floor provides active investors with comprehensive, real-time market data and private equity advisory and investments.
“The emotion, personality, and authenticity of voice is missing from the current social conversation online,” said Peter Grossman, CEO, Qwips. “Qwips is bringing voice to the social web. With our new financing, we’re continuing technological development of the Qwips platform, broadening the marketing of Qwips and our technology, and further expanding our current sales/partnership efforts with brands, publishers, and marketers who are looking to easily add voice to their sites and social media campaigns.”
Related link:
Photo by flickr user Neil McIntosh/harlequeen, used under Creative Commons license
