Bibblio announces close of $1.5m seed round

Bibblio, which provides a plug-and-play ad-free content recommendation toolkit powered by machine learning, has closed a $1.5m seed round led by 01 Ventures and participated in by UKBAA individual investor members.

Based in London, Bibblio had previously raised $300,000 from angels in March 2015 and wants to help publishers engage with users.

Founder and CEO Mads Holmen spoke about the fundraise: “This marks a break with first generation ‘content recommendation’ companies like Taboola and Outbrain, which focussed on pushing adverts and clickbait ‘sponsored content’ rather than giving users what they really wanted.

“This was never a solution for high quality content creators, whose brands are damaged by proximity to dubious stories and ‘fake news’. Bibblio will help them realize the value of their content and deepen their relationships with their user base,” he added.

Eeswaran Navaratnam, investor at 01 Ventures, spoke about his decision to back the company.

“As the media and publishing world begin to fork, with ad-yield focused free content on the one hand and engagement focused high-value content behind a pay-wall on the other, we think it’s a great time for a player to serve this latter market. This is what makes Bibblio exciting.”

Navaratnam then went on to note that customers would soon be able to use Biblio to recommend articles or content in their newsletters and provide personalised front pages.