You only have 3 seconds to capture the attention of your audience, after which the natural impulse of online browsers kick in; the search for social proof. So says Brighton start-up, StoryStream, which tore into the scene in 2012 to give big brands the lead when it comes to capturing the attention of potential customers. Recently, the start-up raised £1.2 million additional funding, led by MMC Ventures, to advance its offering with artificial intelligence (AI).

With this latest investment, StoryStream will use AI to accelerate the efficiency of finding, managing and deploying content to power engaging content experiences for brands.

To lead the AI philosophy at StoryStream the company also hired Dr. Janet Bastiman as its chief science officer to head a new team based in its London office, which opened earlier this year.

“Marketers are increasingly thinking about how AI can be leveraged to improve operations and boost revenue,” said Alex Vaidya, CEO and co-founder, StoryStream. “We wanted to make that an accessible reality for marketers. It was important for us to have talent in-house in order to design unique, specialist technology that can keep up with the demands of our clients. Original AI technology will become a game changer for the business.”

With this latest fundraise StoryStream has secured a total of £3 million today with MMC Ventures. It closed its Series A funding round at £1.8 million in April 2016.

“Marketers are dealing with ever increasing amounts of content related to their brand and there are few enterprise tools that have the ability to manage brand and customer content at scale, in real-time, across multiple channels,” Jon Coker, managing partner at MMC Ventures, said. “We believe this problem is well suited to AI and StoryStream’s offering and we are excited to be backing StoryStream’s continued commitment to it.”