Infochimps raises $1.2M to sell data sets

Mining data from social networks and polling companies

In the digital age, an unprecedented amount of information about potential customers is increasingly available, if you are willing to mine and sort all of it. Or, you could save some time, and pay someone else to do the mining for you.

Infochimps raised $1.2 million in its first round of funding, led by DFJ Mercury. The Austin-based company has developed a marketplace for lists and other data sets. Founded in 2009, Infochimps will use its newfound capital to expand the data available to customers and to hire more workers. In addition to the eight current employees, Infochimps is currently looking for a community manager, who will be able to help them increase their own social media presence, and possibly collect even more data. They also expect to be hiring more engineers in the near future.

Clients who buy data from Infochimps pay a monthly subscription, which ranges in cost between $25 to $4,000, depending on the amount of data accessed. Customers can buy data like locations of customers, check-in data from the competition, or how many times their product is mentioned on specific sites. This data is of use in areas such as marketing and product development.

While some people may be concerned about data security, all the collected data is taken from sites that allow for some level of data sharing in their terms of service or from public polls. Since the information is about broader trends and demographics, there is no way for a user to opt-out of the results. As is always the case online, if you don't want it known, it is best never to post it.

The companies' top 20 data sets have been downloaded more than 30,000 times. The site collects data from social media outlets such as Twitter and MySpace, though users can upload their own data. The company is in the process of making arrangements with data collection firms, such as Dun & Bradstreet and Zogby International, in order to increase its data collection.

This round of funding follows a $375,000 seed round. The company has increased the total amount of capital raised to $1.6 million. The company hopes to raise a Series B round of funding late in 2011.