Dataminr, a New York company that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to scrape social media and quickly spot breaking news events, has established an office in Seattle, GeekWire has learned.
The company has eight positions listed on its website for “domain experts,” based in Seattle. Rather than hiring engineers in tech-rich Seattle, Dataminr is, for now, looking for subject matter experts from the worlds of journalism, government and the private sector that understand social media and can help train the company’s algorithims.
Dataminr declined to comment on its Seattle presence.
Dataminr has set up shop in the WeWork Westlake Tower office. A source with knowledge of the company’s plans told GeekWire that Dataminr will move to a full floor at another WeWork office opening soon at 925 Fourth Ave.
The company says it has close to 400 people worldwide, and it has raised more than $180 million in its lifetime.
Dataminr scans millions of social media posts daily, looking for everything from global political events to car fires. It then relays that information in the form of alerts for clients in the finance, security, news media and PR industries.
The company claims it can spot important events hours before they are reported by major news organizations. For example, Dataminr says it was able to alert clients instants after a train derailment in Washington state last year, giving them time to adjust transportation plans and make sure anyone involved was safe.
Dataminr joins more than 100 out-of-town tech companies that have established outposts in Seattle, looking to take advantage of the region’s wealth of tech talent working at tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft and a growing network of startups. Dataminr is also hiring for offices in New York, Washington D.C., London, Dublin and Bozeman, Mont.
