Ness Computing built a personalized, data-driven search engine—its "Likeness Engine"—that parses social data and applies machine learning to deliver individualized recommendations. The company launched an iOS app a year prior focused on restaurant recommendations, using signals from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, Instagram and other sources. The app presents a likeness score (0–100%) and includes features such as interactive maps, social sharing, OpenTable reservations, and over 325,000 menus from SinglePlatform. Users have generated more than 3 million ratings and the app contains over 5 million Instagram images for restaurants. Ness plans to expand the Likeness Engine into other verticals including media, nightlife, events, movies, shopping and mobile commerce, and will broaden platform support to Android. The company intends to use new funding to build out engineering and machine-learning teams focused on systems and interface engineering. Ness Computing is developing a personalized, subjective search product centered on a proprietary 'Likeness Engine' that blends recommendation systems with search. The engine applies machine learning to social signals from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla and other sources to infer user preferences. The company has assembled a team of about 15 people and is Alsop‑incubated; Corey Reese is CEO and co‑founder. Ness secured the likeness.com domain and says it plans to launch its first product in the coming weeks, with an initial focus on mobile. The company raised $5 million in funding to complete development and support the upcoming launch. Ness has been described internally and externally as organizing 'opportunities' and has been called the 'Palantir for fun.'

Total raised

$20M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Aug 2012