BOULDER — Respondology LLC, a Boulder-based online brand-protection and comment-management platform, has raised $11 million through a Series A round that will be used to grow the company’s workforce and accelerate technology development.

The company provides users with a single interface that allows for identification and removal of malicious comments across multiple social media platforms. The intent is to create “a more engaging environment for brands and their followers while improving return-on-ad-spend for social media advertisers,” Respondology said.

Respondology CEO Erik Swain, in a prepared statement, said Repondology’s “business is to help protect brands and high-profile individuals from the damages of online hate and toxicity. As humans, I believe it is our moral imperative to do so.”

Respondology is part of the Boulder Heavy Industries portfolio of local digital marketing companies, which includes Brandzooka and Ideas Made Measurable

“Whether it is Respondology or other local organizations, I love to see companies thrive in Boulder and the greater Rocky Mountain region,” Swain told BizWest in an email “We are so fortunate to have the magic combination of living in a beautiful, slower-pace-of-life region, yet still growing companies that are helping change the world. Entrepreneurialism is alive and thriving in our great state of Colorado.”

The Series A fundraising round included new investment from Iron Gate Capital, SJF Ventures, Zelkova Ventures and Service Provider Capital. 

“We select category leaders as an investment firm, and our diligence confirmed that Respondology is leading the way brands improve the integrity of comment engagement on social media,” Iron Gate managing partner Ryan Pollock said in a prepared statement. “We are thrilled to partner with our co-investors in the syndicate, and with Erik and his team as they scale up operations to handle their growth.”

Swain said the plan is to more than double the company’s current employee headcount in 2023. Respondology has 14 workers now and plans to bring aboard about 20 more, mostly in engineering and sales roles.

Respondology was launched in 2017 as a “cost-per-click” social media marketing platform that “scans the content of millions of social posts each day to identify customer sentiment and intent, and replies with marketing messages in real-time,” the company said when it made its debut.