Here’s probably the first big acquisition of an Icelandic startup to a Silicon Valley firm. Earlier this week, San Francisco-based Jive Software announced their quarterly earnings, and mentioned that they’ve acquired the Icelandic startup, Clara. The reported price was approximately €6.8 million ($9 million).
We last covered CLARA four years ago, but their company has obviously taken off since then. CLARA was founded in 2008 by two college dropouts, and produces community analytics tools that allow businesses to understand, monitor, and engage with their members on online platforms. Today they have 16 people distributed between San Francisco, London, and Reykjavik.
Clara’s customers include video game companies, large online communities, and communications agencies that are managing customer accounts. Their platform performs sentiment analysis using machine learning and natural language processing, giving individual analysis on community members and tools to see whats trending within your community.
This feature set looks like it will fit nicely into Jive Software’s portfolio, which includes a number of social business tools for sales, marketing, customer service, and workforce productivity.
The Icelandic startup scene is picking up. Startup Reykjavik, Iceland’s first real startup accelerator is currently going through their second batch, and Startup Iceland conference is set for the 1st to the 4th of June. This acquisition might help strengthen the scene further with more money and attention.
