Draper Esprit leads $16.2m funding round for Realeyes

The fresh funding will enable the company to build out its AI engineering team and invest in expanding the potential uses of its technology into the healthcare, robotics and education space.

As part of the deal, former LootCrate senior vice-president Barry Coleman has been appointed chief operating officer.

Karma Ventures and Harbert European Growth Capital also took part in the round, alongside existing investors The Entrepreneurs Fund and Tera Ventures.

According to a blog post on the company's website, it has increased its revenues by 932% in the last four years.

Previous funding
SmartCap invested $310,000 as part of a seed funding round for Realeyes in January 2011. SmartCap and Entrepreneurs Fund then invested $3.2m in the company in March 2013.

Realeyes secured a €3.6m grant from the European Commission in April 2015.

Company
Established in 2007, London-based Realeyes develops technology that uses web cameras to read people's faces and measure their emotions. Its software is used by clients including Coca-Cola, The Hershey Company and Mars to analyse consumers' response to video marketing. The business has a headcount of 65 across offices in New York, Boston, London and Budapest.

People
Draper Esprit – Stuart Chapman (chief operating officer).
Harbert European Growth Capital – Fahad Khan (vice-president).
Karma Ventures – Margus Uudam (founding partner).
Realeyes – Mihkel Jäätma (CEO).

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