Mel Morris, a renowned tech investor and entrepreneur, has invested $4.75 million in Audiense, a SaaS for customer experience and engagement. Mel was the former long-term chairman of King Digital (creators of Candy Crush). The latest investment in the SaaS platform will boost its growth plans, which include scaling-up its sales and marketing functions. The funding will enable the firm to expand into North America.

Javier Burón, co-founder and CEO of Audiense, said: “Four thousand Audiense customers are already enjoying the benefits of our SaaS capabilities, but we’re only just scratching the surface of the market. Companies are beginning to understand how vital consumer insights are to their future success or even to their continued existence. Massively positive feedback from our rapidly growing customer base would suggest we have the right solution at exactly the right time.”

About his VC funding to Audiense, Mel Morris said:

“An estimated $15bn will be spent on social marketing by businesses in the USA alone this year, and delivering more strategic and measurable value to those spending it is going to be key. I believe the Audiense team and tech, packed as it is with genuine and deep expertise in socially-acquired data and insight is superbly poised to help businesses extract maximum value from their social marketing budgets.”

Audiense is one of only two Twitter Official Partners worldwide for both Data/Insights and Advertising. It leverages the IBM Watson cognitive computing platform to determine unique and powerful personality insights from audience data. The London-based SaaS provider has so far raised $7.99 million in four funding rounds since its inception in 2011. Other investors in Audiense include B2B tech investor Chris Underhill and angel investor Stephen Bullock. Mel Morris, Underhill and Bullock currently hold the position of Non-Executive Chairman at Audiense.

Mel Morris has made investments in competitive intelligence for search marketers Adthena, SaaS automation platform for customer marketing BriefYourMarket.