Paris, September 20th 2011 – Truffle Capital and the specialist investment fund Holding Incubatrice Internet have invested $1.5 million in the technology company Scan & Target. The company’s founding investors Crédit Agricole Private Equity and Scientipôle Capital also joined the round of financing. The event marks the Holding Incubatrice Internet fund’s first investment since its inception in 2010.

Scan & Target was incorporated in January 2008. The company provides a technology platform for extracting actionable intelligence from digital conversations (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, instant messaging, forums, etc.). Scan & Target notably offers applications for content moderation, sentiment analysis, social CRM and e-discovery and has significance expertise in handling substantial volumes of data in real-time and in several languages.
The company’s current customers including the Française des Jeux national lottery and gaming operator, the e-tailer Pixmania, the leading magazine press company Prisma Presse and the PMU betting operator. Scan & Target had previously closed an initial €1 million round of funding with Crédit Agricole Private Equity and Scientipôle Capital in April 2009.

Scan & Target CEO Bastien Hillen commented on the investment: “The collaboration with Truffle Capital and Holding Incubatrice Internet will enable Scan & Target to take a decisive step towards becoming a technology and market leader.  Truffle Capital’s expert staff, international networks and sector knowledge are unique in the world of European venture capital and will be invaluable for expanding our presence in France and abroad - notably in the USA.”  He added that “our recently launched breakthrough technology, which marks the culmination of several years of R&D, has been very well received by the market. It’s a great tool to help marketing departments optimize their campaigns by analyzing and moderating online conversations (via Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, mobile text messaging, email, etc.) in real time, profile their audiences and boost monetization rates.”

Bernard-Louis Roques (Truffle Capital founder and Managing Director for the IT portfolio) said of the initiative “The Scan & Target solution is a way for brands and companies to leverage the rapid growth of social networks and manage and optimize their reputation in the highly sought-after target market of connected consumers. The company’s technology is at the heart of the wave of marketing and advertising investments in social networks that we are now seeing. Our investment in Scan & Target is the fruit of successful cooperation between Truffle Capital and Holding Incubatrice Internet, chaired by Ruud Bakker - the former Chairman of VNU and a high-profile figure in the European media industry”.

About Scan & Target
Scan & Target provides digital conversations analysis for leading government agencies, service publishers, marketing agencies, e-commerce sites and media.  The company’s unique Text Meaning technology understands the meaning behind text, offering customers the relevant information they need to moderate, monetize, or gather intelligence from digital communications, including SMS, e-mails, forums, chat, blogs, tweets and Facebook comments. Founded in 2008, Scan & Target is based in Paris, France. Please visit www.scanandtarget.com for more information.

About Truffle Capital
Founded in 2002 in Paris, Truffle Capital is a leading independent European private equity firm dedicated to investing in and building technology leaders in the IT, life sciences and energy/sustainable development sectors. With €460 million in managed funds, Truffle Capital is led by a team of four partners (Jean-François Fourt, Henri Moulard, Philippe Pouletty and Bernard-Louis Roques) with decades of successful investment and entrepreneurial experience in both Europe and North America. Truffle Capital aims to achieve superior financial returns by leveraging its industry knowledge, extensive network, operational experience and focus on spin-outs to identify business opportunities that match latent market needs. For further information, please visit www.truffle.com.

About Holdings Incubatrices 2010
A leaflet validated by the AMF (Securities Commission) on March 2nd, 2010 under number 10-034 is placed at the disposal of the public, and can be downloaded on the Internet site of the AMF (www.amf-france.org) or on the site of Holdings Incubatrices (www.holdingsincubatrices.com). Holdings Incubatrices is a registered trademark filed with the INPI of Truffle Capital. Truffle Capital acts as a Consultant to Holdings Incubatrices 2010 under the terms of a consultancy contract concluded between Truffle Capital and each of the Holding Incubatrices 2010.

Press Contacts

    ALIZE RP
Caroline Carmagnol
Tel : +33 6 64 18 99 59 / + 33 1 42 68 86 43
caroline@alizerp.com
Anne-Sophie Cosquéric
Tel: +33 1 42 68 86 41 / anne-sophie@alizerp.com

Scan & Target
Bastien Hillen - CEO
Tel: +33 6 11 25 53 80
b.hillen@scanandtarget.com