(Bloomberg) — A news startup that will offer consumers a human-curated content feed has raised seed financing and appointed an advisory board of former media leaders to help it develop and expand before its app launches later this year.
Berlin-based Informed has recruited former Financial Times editor Lionel Barber, former Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, and former Economist editor-in-chief Bill Emmott to its advisory board, according to a statement. It received a total of 5 million euros ($5.4 million) from venture capital firms HV Capital and 468 Capital.
The company was founded in January 2021 and will offer an app that gives access to articles from a variety of outlets including the New York Times and Foreign Policy. The app is currently in beta and will go live before the end of 2022.
Informed sees an opportunity to help publishers make money from readers who might be more likely to subscribe to a mix of outlets than a single publication, Martin Kaelble, a co-founder of the startup, said in an interview. The company hasn’t set a price yet.
The advisory board members, who will have shares in the company, will formulate editorial principals, said Kaelble, a former journalist.
“It is very complex compared to a startup like doing delivery for food,” he said. “It’s worth it to spend a lot of time on editorial guidelines and principles with a lot of advice, with journalistic expertise.”
Read more: Venture Investors’ $1.4 Billion Bet on News Faces Reality Check
Venture capitalists pumped billions into publishing startups in the U.S. and Europe last year, helping support a proliferation of new publications built on established journalists’ existing audiences.
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