Civey, a Berlin-based startup which develops one of the first-ever technologies worldwide to automate representative surveys without random sampling, just secured €1.2 million from IBB Bet. as part of the technology development program Pro FIT.
The new procedure of Civey allows any user to conduct free representative surveys of the public opinion. The young tech company was founded in 2015 and already employs a team of 16 people.
“So far, the services of the big opinion research institutes have been unaffordable for all but a few. We intend to change that”, says Gerrit Richter, founder and CEO of Civey. He further explains: “The unique advantage of our new system is the extremely low cost. We don’t need a call center, paid participants or hordes of opinion polling consultants anymore.”
This is why Civey is not only aiming at the classic opinion and product research market with its new model, but also at political participation through reliable surveys.
With the fresh capital, Civey is going to accelerate its product development and launch a first beta version this summer. Until now the startup has been focusing on scientific viability. The reliability of the new method is ensured by co-founder Prof Dr Oliver Serfling in collaboration with the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences.
The decisive contrast to conventional methods lies in the sample. In non-probability sampling, the participants are no longer randomly picked. The users themselves choose the surveys they are most interested in, resulting in much higher participant count and lower cost. As a result, however, the calculation of reliable results is technologically far more challenging and barely researched yet.