Pink Floyd drummer and others invest in social media tech startup Lightful

A social media and campaign management platform for social enterprises and charities has raised seven-figures in its Series A funding round.

Tower Hamlets-based startup Lightful secured £4m from a range of investors, with high-profile backers including Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and former racing driver Dario Franchitti.

The cash boost will be used to launch a full-service digital consultancy, Lightful Services, to improve innovation in the sector and build bespoke technology solutions.

Lightful Services will operate alongside the company’s core platform, which integrates with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn into a unified platform for third sector organisations to manage their social media content, supporter relationships and campaigns.

The funding will also be invested in Lightful’s research and development division, Lightful Labs, which is currently trialling experiential technology spanning artificial intelligence, machine learning, bots and voice recognition.

Vinay Nair, the company’s founder and chief exec, said: “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.

“That’s why we’re also spearheading a widespread movement to #ReclaimSocial, so that countless examples of positive and high-impact stories can be amplified.”

He continued: “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.”

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