The Oxford-founded software company, TheySay, which has developed an advanced “sentimental analysis” tool for businesses has received a first round investment of up to £500,000 from IP Group plc. The software has been based on work by Professor Stephen Pulman and Karo Moilanen from the University of Oxford’s Department of Computer Science. The tool has been built on a deep understanding of linguistics along with machine learning techniques to assess accurately what people actually mean from what they ‘say’ online. TheySay’s approach is expected to overcome limitations of currently available sentiment analysis tools. As nowadays, many companies are concerned about their reputation, this tool will provide an excellent way of knowing how their products or services are perceived by their customers.

TheySay was set up within the software incubator of Isis Innovation, the University’s technology transfer company. Tom Hockaday, Managing Director of Isis Innovation said: “The Isis Software Incubator was set up to provide practical, commercial support and mentoring for ventures like TheySay, which has scope and potential across many industries.”

Roy Azoulay, the company's CEO has an MBA from Saïd Business School and upon its completion was awarded an Isis-SBS fellowship. He stayed on at Isis and spear-headed the tech-transfer company's initative for the Isis Innovation software incubator.

Further information on TheySay here