Goldman Sachs Bets $20 Million on a Facebook-Powered Media Buying Platform

Networked Insights, which helps marketers buy media using data it culls from social networks, has raised a $20 million round led by Goldman Sachs.
The Madison, Wis.-based company, which says it helps allocate $5 billion in marketing spend, has now raised $30 million since 2007. Its client list includes Samsung, Kraft and MTV Networks.
Networked Insights competes with several start-ups selling analytics services that are supposed to help buyers optimize their marketing mix; earlier this year, for instance, Los Angeles-based MarketShare raised $32 million from Elevation Partners. Networked Insights’ pitch is that it is particularly good at picking up cues from Web users on sites/networks like Facebook and Twitter, so that it can help marketers steer their money into some underappreciated, cost-effective buys.