Lightful, a social media and campaign management tool for charities and social enterprises, has secured £4m in Series A funding.
The company drew investment from backers including Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and British racing driver Dario Franchitti.
Lightful works by integrating with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to create a single platform for charities to manage their social media content, supporter relationships and campaigns.
Vinay Nair, CEO and co-founder of Lightful, commented: “Charities and social enterprises have some of the best stories to tell, and we are excited that Lightful can help grow the potential of using social media for social good – we certainly need that to happen now more than ever.”
“With claims that social media is destroying society and acting as a purveyor of hate speech, there’s clearly a significant opportunity to bring about change – and we believe the social impact space has a vital role to play. With the fantastic support from our incredible investors, we’re excited to try to make 2018 the year we can finally reclaim social media – for good,” added Nair.
Mason, one the firm’s investors, explained why he decided to back the startup: “Many charities have been hampered by time consuming tasks and budget constraints which inhibit progress. The Lightful concept is easing some of these fundamental issues, and this is exemplified by the sheer number of organisations signing up to the platform. I’m excited to see what the next few months have in store.”
The money will be used to fund additional R&D and Lightful Labs – which is trialing AI, machine learning, bots and voice recognition.
Franchitti went on to note: “Media is changing rapidly, it’s vital that charities learn to connect with their audiences in a way which is simple, yet effective.
“Lightful’s platform caters to this perfectly, offering a really innovative tech solution that could reinvent the dialogue between great causes and the everyday people who support them,” he concluded.