FactSquared (http://factsquared.com), parent company of the acclaimed and often-cited platform Factba.se (https://factba.se) today announced it has raised seed funding, led by serial entrepreneurs and investors Mark Walsh and Matt Koll. FactSquared will use the capital to expand its outreach in the political, corporates and media fields and continue development of its platform – which has made instantly searchable every word spoken by President Donald Trump since the 1980s.
Walsh will assume the role of Executive Chairman and take an active role in the business development and go-to-market strategy of FactSquared.
"FactSquared can build on the state-of-the-art technology pioneered by Factba.se to provide deep, instant access to campaigns in Washington and investor relations teams worldwide," said Mark Walsh, executive chairman of FactSquared. "Campaigns, political advocacy groups and corporations will have automatic access to assets such as financial records, speeches and Tweets, allowing them to monitor minute changes in strategy and language in real-time, uncover potential flashpoints of opponents and ensure complete transparency for everyday citizens."
Walsh has held a number of government and corporate positions – most recently as an appointee to the Small Business Administration under former President Barack Obama. He took the business-to-business pioneer VerticalNet public as CEO, and was previously a corporate officer at AOL and CEO of Air America. Walsh also co-hosted Left Jab Radio, a political talk show on SiriusXM. He serves on numerous boards in the Washington area and has invested in more than 25 companies.
A veteran D.C.-area entrepreneur and investor, Koll is co-founder and president of 410 Labs. His first company, Personal Library Software, developed innovative smart search technology that was widely used by newspapers, lawyers, intelligence analysts and other researchers.
"Our primary goal with Factba.se is to empower people who may be skeptical of the media with the tools to search primary sources in real-time and drill deeply into relevant facts," said Bill Frischling, CEO of FactSquared and the founder and developer of Factba.se. "We are delighted to have Mark and Matt take an active role in FactSquared."
FactSquared has moved into offices in Washington DC. The company came to prominence in January 2017 with the aim of combatting fake news by offering primary sources to researchers, reporters and citizens.
About FactSquared
FactSquared, Inc. is the parent company of Factba.se (https://factba.se), which has compiled and made searchable every word spoken by Donald J. Trump – including tweets, financial records and speeches. FactSquared can transcribe, structure, keyword and analyze text, audio and video for sentiment, emotion, personality, and more automatically. Factba.se is used daily by the Washington press corps and cited regularly by media outlets such as CNN, The Washington Post, Politico, Vox, The Hill and McClatchy. It has been profiled by Buzzfeed, Mashable, Columbia Journalism Review, Harvard's Nieman Labs, and been tweeted more than 20,000 times. Developed in January 2017, FactSquared is located in Washington D.C.
