OutBrain has secured $11 million funding for a content recommendation engine that steers web readers to other stories within the site or to other sites that are relevant to the article they’re reading. Investors include Gemini Israel Funds, Carmel Ventures, GlenRock Israel, Rhodium and Lightspeed Venture Partners
OutBrain’s business is built on paid distribution, where big publishers such as Slate, USA Today and Conde Nast, which have all been using Outbrain’s technology, pay to have articles show up on another site.
OutBrain’s recommendation for blog and article content on the web can be likened to what Netflix does for movies and how Amazon recommendations for books.
The company concentrates on personalizing their algorithms, so they can present you with those hidden gems of content that are really interesting to you.
For web publishers OutBrain helps you find more of your own content that they may not have discovered independently.
They also allow you to turn on sponsored recommendations: when you do this, Outbrain finds great content for your readers from external sites and displays links to them in relevant areas. When users click, you get paid – and you’ve given your readers something of real value to them, unlike another “work from home” offer.
