Pollfish: making market research relevant

Founded in Greece in 2013, Pollfish gives publishers and app owners a way to monetize their content, beyond advertisements or fees. “We deliver surveys to millions of consumers worldwide via mobile apps and website. It gives us massive distribution, the ability to have very specific criteria, faster results and most importantly perhaps, it’s very cost effective compared to surveys through calls or emails.” explains John Papadakis, co-founder and CEO of Pollfish. The company also offers the possibility of customising questionnaires through intuitive features and simple design, selecting a target audience and receiving results in real time.

“Gone are the days researchers had to blindly stumble about, trying to understand their audience. We use advanced data science and algorithms to offer more insights about your survey data and the users who responded” John says, describing the business.

Originally from Aliartos, an hour north of Athens, John met two of the other three co-founders at university in Patras, where they were studying engineering. They first worked on developing mobile apps, and it is there that the idea for Pollfish surfaced. They began to experiment with surveys aimed at the app users and found it to be very effective.

Pollfish took off and had noticeable traction soon on. In the process of developing the business John secured seed investment from PJ Tech Catalyst, a Greek venture capital fund backed by EIF, which allowed them to develop the product further and focus on marketing. The company has since grown from four employees to 24, planning to almost double that number within the first months of 2018. Pollfish is quickly expanding sales and securing clients internationally.

“We wouldn’t exist without this investment, that’s a fact” John says, while underlining the role PJ Tech Catalysts played in helping with staffing. Looking back, he feels that a lot has changed in venture capital: “The Greek venture capital ecosystem was completely immature not long ago. Things have definitely improved over the last few years. In the past you would have had to look elsewhere. Now opportunities are appearing in Greece.”

Company: Pollfish (Greece)

Type of business: ICT, surveys, market research

EIF financing: JEREMIE

Financial intermediary: PJ Tech Catalyst Fund

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Greece, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/el