Polzify, a Maltese start-up that focuses on extracting data and insights from online reviews, won an award at a conference in the Netherlands organised by the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT).
Co-founded in 2024 by Matthew Sacco and Dr Dylan Seychell, Polzify specialises in technology that helps businesses extract meaningful data and insights from online reviews, feedback and user-generated content.
Its name originates from the Maltese word “polz” (pulse), reflecting the platform’s aim to get a clear understanding of what customers are saying, both individually and collectively about businesses.
Businesses can then use this data to make smarter decisions.
“Online reviews are the word of mouth on steroids,” Mr Sacco said. “They are digital opinions with a big audience and once they’re online they tend to stay online forever.”
Polzify is underpinned by a strong research and development team, grounded in peer-reviewed academic research.
Its second academic publication, VISTA: Analysing Visual User-Generated Content for Destination Management (Sacco et al.), focused on extracting actionable insights from photos uploaded to review platforms and social media.
Its image analysis pipeline is both scalable and ethical, automatically anonymising individuals by blurring faces before classification. Rather than relying on simple object detection, VISTA captures deeper, latent features such as overcrowding, cleanliness, and environmental pressure.
The paper was presented at IFITT’s Enter26 conference, hosted by Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands at the end of January, and it placed first in the Full Paper category.
