Methinks raises $7 million in Series A funding for qualitative market research
Methinks, creators of a worldwide video-based research platform, today announces its entry into the self-serve qualitative research market and its vision to transform how customer insights are injected into business decision-making. The SaaS-based platform was designed by industry game-changers Philip Yun and Wilson Li, and has secured $7 million in Series A funding led by Sema Translink, and includes KB Investment and Hyundai Investment. Funding will empower Methink’s global expansion and product development as it encourages organizations to accumulate insights to better serve their customers and grow their business around the world.
Managing Partner of Sema Translink, Bumsoo Kim Said “We invested in Methinks for two main reasons: everyone understands the pain and cost of gathering invaluable customer insights; and Philip Yun and Wilson Li are experts at creating winning technologies.” “The combination of developing a solution to a long-time business problem and finding founders with this kind of credibility is key to building winning solutions now and tomorrow. We believe Methinks can make a big impact on the multi-trillion-dollar R&D industry.”
Founded in 2016, Methinks gives customers access to a pool of 350,000 “Thinkers” who are ready to share insights and opinions with Methinks customers. Among the many prominent companies utilizing Methinks are researchers and product managers from Samsung, LG, Verizon, Machine Zone, and Hyundai, just to name a few. “We like to consider Methinks as the research industry’s best-kept secret. It’s the time everyone knows who we are,” said Wilson Li, Co-founder, and Head of Systems Development of Methinks.
The Methinks Difference
Methinks enables any company target, find and interview customers and prospects through face-to-face video calls. This captured qualitative research helps organizations learn from their customers through efficient, cost-effective, face-to-face conversations that are moderated, recorded, transcribed, annotated and easily edited and shared for rapid, authoritative learning. The SaaS-based platform allows researchers to conduct live interviews, qualitative surveys, and longitudinal studies, enabling insights ranging from basic product usability to a nuanced understanding of personal product usage only discoverable through longer-term research efforts.
Methinks found early success servicing worldwide business conglomerates, bringing US clients to international giants in consumer electronics, auto, games, software, and media. More recently, Methinks has been repeatedly engaged by US-focused businesses, especially those in the early stages of R&D. Methinks wants to change the way market research is conducted by empowering entrepreneurs, professional researchers, product managers, designers or any R&D leader to quickly and cost-effectively inject customer insights into their business. Any Methinks client can schedule and record interviews instantly, take notes, bookmark consumer insights, and more. All the videos are time-stamped and stored in the cloud for easy access, editing and sharing.
Philip Yun, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Methinks Said, “From brand-new start-ups to hundred-year old enterprises, understanding what customers want and need is paramount to success. Methinks dramatically changes the timelines and cost structure of research.” “Our goal is to connect you with your target customers so you can ask important questions and learn. We have created a very simple, and elegant solution to a very challenging problem of creating a robust platform, an easy-to-use application and a vibrant marketplace of Thinkers.”
About Methinks Technologies, Inc.
Methinks Technologies was founded by Philip Yun and Wilson Li, two games industry veterans who have worked together for nearly a decade, pioneering free-to-play multiplayer video games in North America. They have held key product and management positions at OutSpark, Sony, Line and NHN. In 2015, Yun and Li were working on a new concept for a video game and created a software tool to test the viability of the game. Investors and advisors helped the two quickly realized they’d prototyped a tool with huge potential and shifted gears to create Methinks. In just a few short years, Methinks attracted global leaders as customers and created a marketplace for hundreds-of-thousands of “Thinkers”, all by organic growth and customer recommendations. Methinks’ key investors are Pan-Pacific investors with offices in the US and throughout Asia: SEMA Translink, KB Investment and Hyundai Investment. Methinks is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and Mountain View, Calif.