Comparing thousands of individual articles, Belga’s bias detection platform for media monitoring allows instant analysis of any single article’s subjectivity. “We focus on 'bias' analysis and detection in published news from three perspectives: political direction, sentiment and factuality,” Belga CIO Tom Wuytack explains. The resulting insights help journalists, publishers and communication professionals monitor news media content, and then more effectively monetise it by making it more relevant to readers. “Currently our main client base is communication professionals, in a sector which is under pressure and where competition is high.”

The team at Belga spotted a synergy between their product and the needs of the financial sector and are now preparing to launch a spin-off company using the platform to look for indicators of growth, fraud or positive/negative opinion shifts.

“The spin-off creates product opportunities in a totally new market for us. Our data can potentially be sold outside of our own geographical area, and budgets in this sector are by default higher. DNI funding has allowed us to further develop the platform, elevate the quality of our output and improve performance – we’re a real time agency, offering real time results,” says Wuytack.