Sumpto, the emerging platform that measures the social influence of college students, is announcing today that it has secured $350K in funding from investors that include SocialStarts.net and Nick Brien, former CEO of McCANN Group. Founded in 2012, Sumpto aims to provide brands and marketers with a more granular way to target college students via Sumpto Scores, which are determined by an individual's digital and real-life influence within their respective peer groups. Sumpto Scores not only measure an individual's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram activity and engagement, but also takes into account unique metrics that are specific to college students, such as academic, athletic and additional social organizations that college students are involved in.

Sumpto has garnered 17,500 college influencers (this number is steadily growing) since they launched out of beta on September 9, 2013, with over 1,800 students who have claimed Sumpto rewards, consisting of pertinent products that are tailored for each user. As an example, Sumpto partnered with Jabra and sought out 25 of the most influential college students in music. Each influencer was given a free pair of Jabra REVO Wireless Headphones to wear around campus and become brand ambassadors. This generated 487 likes and 276 comments on Facebook and resulted in an immediate reach of over 7.5 million unique impressions for the brand.

'After graduating college, I realized there was a huge disconnect between college students and brands,' says Sumpto founder Ben Kosinski (pictured). 'I saw the potential to unite the two, and allow companies to filter through this demographic in order to target a very specific group of students, while also positioning these students as social influencers amongst their friends.'

By offering college students free perks and exclusive access to the newest products on the market, Sumpto provides a viable way for brands and marketers to establish mutually beneficial relationships with the most coveted, early-adopter communities on social media today who also collectively represents well over $120 billion in discretionary spending. Having emerged out of beta earlier this year in September, Sumpto has worked with brands that include Popchips, Greek Life Threads, Society43, EBoost and CollegeFest, to drive college influencer campaigns that have resulted in millions of unique impressions both online and off.

About Sumpto

Founded by Ben Kosinski in 2012, Sumpto measures the social influence of college students and connects relevant companies with their community of college influencers. Sumpto has worked with Greek Life Threads, Society43, EBoost, Popchips and CollegeFest to provide students with enticing rewards.