Third acquisition’s the charm. Change.org now owns Versa!

Source: Venture Beat

With 90M users, Change.org buys Versa to expand its petition platform

Today Change.org, a rather large site for creating and promoting petitions, announced its third acquisition: Versa.

versa-logoVersa tried to make sense of chaotic comments on news articles with a sponsored comment tool. That tool was designed to help politicians, corporations, and bona fide think-fluencers promote their views with cash.

Change.org declined to share how much it paid for Versa, but told VentureBeat that the company’s team — chief executive Keya Dannenbaum, chief technical officer John Mertens, and chief product officer Manya Scheps — will join Change.org and shutter their existing service.

At Change.org, the three will build new ways for the public — Change.org’s 90 million users — and various decision makers (think: politicians and corporations) to communicate with one another.

Versa was once known as ElectNext. Pre-pivot, ElectNext offered a service that helped voters find like-minded politicians. Versa raised a $1.3 million round before the acquisition and was based in Philadelphia and New York.