askpolly bags $3 million in seed funding to expand AI powered platform focused on social media conversations
askpolly has raised $3 million in seed capital. Differential Ventures led the round, with participation from The 98, and Forum Ventures. askpolly says it will use the cash to expand product development and accelerate go to-market efforts across the United States.
The startup turns organic social media conversations into market research. The self-serve platform removes bots, influencers, and paid content before building representative samples based on census demographics. This allows companies to understand what real audiences think, without waiting weeks for a traditional survey or relying on synthetic results.
“Market research has not kept pace with the way people communicate,” says Erin Kelly, Co-founder and CEO at askpolly. “Consumers are already sharing what they think online, but the loudest voices are not always representative. We built askpolly to remove that bias and give companies rigourous answers while those insights can still shape a decision.”
The platform is currently used by more than 200 companies, including McDonald’s and Mastercard, and supports research ranging from audience analysis to message testing. It is designed for marketing teams that need to make faster decisions and for data leaders responsible for ensuring those decisions are based on credible evidence. Agencies can also use it to test creative concepts and validate recommendations before presenting them to clients.
“askpolly’s ability to produce statistically defensible and explainable results in a matter of minutes instead of weeks or months is a substantial leap forward for the market research industry,” says Nick Adams, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Differential Ventures. “LLMs are outstanding tools for large scale data extraction and summarisation but they can’t actually perform research in a way that produces trusted recommendations which creates the usability and liability gap that askpolly fills.”
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
Startups will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
