Atlantic Merchant Capital Investors announced today that it has made a lead investment in conjunction with Fleur De Lis Partners, into Social Quant, LLC. Social Quant is a Tampa-based technology start-up, formed by Dr. Morten Middelfart. It provides clients with big data algorithmic support tools to increase the size and quality of their Twitter audiences. Dr. Middelfart is a serial entrepreneur and globally-respected author and thinker on the uses of big data and artificial intelligence.

'We are very excited to have the opportunity to back Dr. Middelfart in this exciting new social media venture. We think the company's IT engine can be expanded for uses with other social media tools. As a result, we think Dr. Middelfart's company and services will gain greater scale and relevance over the next several years. He has a history of success with projects like this and we are excited to be a part of this venture. We think the value of his IP is substantial already, but over time we think this can become an extraordinarily valuable IP asset,' said Allan Martin, CEO of Atlantic.

'The team at Social Quant is enthusiastic about our new capital partnership with Atlantic,' said Dr. Morten Middelfart, founder of Social Quant. 'The capital provided by Atlantic will allow us to execute marketing initiatives we believe are necessary to scale our offerings. We are also excited about the opportunity to work with the Atlantic principals in the ongoing development of our strategy. They are proving to add much more than capital to our business.'

Atlantic Merchant Capital Investors is a Tampa-based private equity firm founded in 2009 with investments in middle-market companies throughout the United States. Its primary investment focus is financial services with emphasis on insurance and banking. However, it has a growing portfolio of investments in scalable start-ups in an effort to support entrepreneurship in the Tampa Bay area.

Fleur De Lis Partners is a private investment partnership (controlled by Atlantic), also based in Tampa, Florida.