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Amidst the seeming chaos of social media, brands need the ability to discover valuable social media content, the metrics and visualize it. At the same time they need to build and launch

campaigns, collect all the data, and use it in CRM and marketing platforms. It’s a tall order and one which few companies can offer.  Livefyre, Offerpop and Spredfast (Mass Relevance) are

players in this field, and until now Wayin and EngageSciences have offered both of these capabilities independently. But that all changes today as the two are announcing a merger. Terms were

not disclosed but the announcement comes on the heels of a $15.4 million investment round for Wayin in September 2015. EngageSciences never raised institutional money and has got to this

point through ‘friends and family’ funding, and making full use of UK funding channels such as EIS Scheme and R&D tax credits. The company says it did $6.5M in revenue last year and got

“close to break even”. The deal is of interest in part because Wayin was co­founded in 2011 by cofounder of Sun Microsystems Scott McNealy, who steps down as CEO of Wayin to become Executive

Chairman of the Board, while EngageSciences CEO Richard Jones takes on the CEO role for the merged entity. The combination will align Wayin’s real­time social data search and visualization

with EngageSciences’ digital campaign delivery and first­-party data collection under the Wayin brand name. ­Wayin has worked with ­the Denver Broncos, The Weather Channel and Walgreens as

examples of its customer base. “While Wayin provides strong real­time capabilities, the combined solution will go much deeper by offering marketers the ability to gather data through polls,

product feedback and reviews and other campaigns to further understand customers and drive results,” McNealy said. EngageSciences launched in London in 2011 and now has global offices in

London, Oxford, Sydney, Dubai and New York, with clients in 76 countries including Bauer Media, Microsoft, Vodafone, AOL, Discovery and Rogers Communications. Jones said: “The combined

capabilities that Wayin and EngageSciences bring creates a category leader in this emerging space.” The company headquarters will be located in Denver, Colorado, but with respective leaders

in U.S. and UK markets and existing presences in Asia.