iMotions Hires High Profile COO and Raises $ US 2 Million in Bridge Funding

iMotions - Emotion Technology A/S, the leading developer of emotional response and eye-tracking software, announced today that Peter Schmidt will take over as Director of the Copenhagen office and COO of European Operations. Simultaneously, iMotions' CEO and Co-Founder Peter Hartzbech, has joined the Board of Directors

 iMotions - Emotion Technology A/S, the leading developer of emotional response and eye-tracking software, announced today that Peter Schmidt will take over as Director of the Copenhagen office and COO of European Operations. Simultaneously, iMotions' CEO and Co-Founder Peter Hartzbech, has joined the Board of Directors.

"It's very difficult to find just the right person. Peter Schmidt will fit very well into our team and bring immense value to iMotions," says Peter Hartzbech. "He knows how to run fast paced businesses and manage high growth while continue building a greate team spirit. His background is in advertising and software development, which is the perfect combination for iMotions," continues Peter Hartzbech.

Peter Schmidt, who is 42, holds an MBA and a Masters degree in Computer Science. He comes from the position of CEO in SoftwarePeople, an offshore software development company with production in Bangladesh. His extensive experience as COO in the advertising industry includes growing a business from 5 to 250 employees in less than 3 years at web bureau Framfab, and growing AdPeople from 20 to 120 employees. 

"I know how to establish and handle a well functioning ‘back-office,' and I have always teamed up with marvelous, high energetic ‘front-office' people to take care of sales, client relations and marketing, which is why I am looking forward to working with the iMotions team," says Peter Schmidt, who  starts his new position at iMotions in mid-August. 

Bridge Funding
In addition to announcing that Peter Schmidt is joining the management team, iMotions announced that it has raised US$ 2 million (DKK 9.5 million) in bridge funding to enable the company to accelerate sales before the next round of funding. The company's software Emotion Tool^® 2.0 is currently being used in 12 countries, including major installations in the United States.

"iMotions is uniquely positioned to expand its sales efforts," according to CEO Peter Hartzbech. "We have a new software release that is not only unique in measuring emotional response, but is the best in eye-tracking as well. We are focusing on bringing Emotion Tool 2.0 to large end clients and Market Research companies during the forth quarter of 2008."

iMotions software product, Emotion Tool 2.0, not only measures emotional response to print ads, marketing materials, and product shelf placement, it is also the most technologically advanced and user friendly software for standard eye-tracking.

About iMotions
iMotions - Emotion Technology A/S is the developer of Emotion Tool^®, the world's first objective, non-intrusive, reliable software to measure human emotional response to visual stimuli such as print ads, Direct Marketing material, and brochures. The software, which also measures visual attention, uses data from a standard eye tracking monitor. Emotion Tool version 2.0 is marketed to the Advertising & Marketing Research industry and is now present in 12 countries - USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, The Netherlands, England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Turkey and Australia. 

Founded in 2005 by CEO Peter Hartzbech and CTO Jakob de Lemos, iMotions is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company currently employs 55 people in their offices in Denmark, India and USA.