New York-based startup Parse.ly announced today that it has closed a $6.8 million funding round for its analytics platform for publishers.

The Series B round was led by existing investors Grotech Ventures and Blumberg Capital, and it also included participation by other previous investors, including Felton Group, FundersClub and DreamIt. This brings Parse.ly’s total funding to $12.85 million.

Parse.ly was founded in 2009, but the company did not officially launch its flagship Dash analytics platform until 2012. Dash is a software as a service platform that provides publishers with detailed insights into the performance of their content, including views, engagement, social media shares, audience loyalty and so on. The platform tracks the data both historically and in real time, allowing publishers to gauge past performance and engage current users. By combining this data with predictive models, Parse.ly said, it “translates engagement into business intelligence.”

According to Parse.ly, its platform is now used by 250 companies, which include major publishers such as Time Inc. and The Wall Street Journal, as well as consumer brands such as HelloFresh and Ben & Jerry’s. Parse.ly said its platform supports more than 2,500 media websites, which are seen by more than 1 billion unique visitors each month.

“We’re quickly seeing the convergence of brands and publishers: publishers focused on building a loyal digital audience, and brands focused on growing relationships directly with consumers,” Parse.ly cofounder and Chief Executive Sachin Kamdar (pictured, left, with co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Andrew Montalenti) said in a statement. “The key to navigating this shift is helping all parties understand attention through data at scale.”

In its statement, Parse.ly cited a Cisco study that predicts that general Internet traffic will increase by nearly threefold within the next five years. Although the online audience is growing rapidly, so are content providers, and publishers have more competition than ever for user attention. That competition is what makes analytics services such as Parse.ly’s valuable, because they allow brands to track audience engagement and know when they are on the right track and when they need to change course.

Data analytics has become a valuable industry, with a 2015 study by International Data Corp. predicting that it will reach $203 billion in value by 2020. Parse.ly seems to be gaining a foothold in the industry, and the company announced today that in addition to its new funding, it has also reached profitability.

“To date, Parse.ly has focused on building a company that brings value to everyone we interact with: our clients, our employees, and our investors,” Kamdar said. “With a profitable core business, a devoted team, and millions in growth capital, we’re ready to scale into one of the world’s top SaaS companies.”

Photo: Parse.ly