Disney Invest In Playbuzz
Playbuzz has announced it has raised $35 million in Series C funding, led by Viola Growth with participation from existing investors including Disney, Saban Ventures, 83North, Carmel Ventures, firstime and Oded Vardi.
The round more than doubles the company’s existing funding, bringing the total to $66M, and further positions it as the number one platform relied upon by premium publishers and brands worldwide as they align their content with today’s content consumption habits.
Playbuzz will use the investment to expand its global footprint, with a focus on its branded content business which already works with Fortune 500 brands to create, distribute and measure engaging native advertising campaigns.
“Working with top media companies over the last 5 years has put us in a unique position to identify opportunities for growth and develop innovative technology to improve audience engagement,” said Shaul Olmert, co-founder and CEO of Playbuzz. “Playbuzz’s evolution into providing monetized content solutions to publishers and brands is of substantial value to our partners in their effort to increase readers’ attention spans and content viewability. Moving forward, Playbuzz will continue to drive engagement with interactive storytelling tools while answering partners’ content, revenue and data needs all in one place.”
The Playbuzz platform is used by the world’s top publishers when they want their stories heard, enabling them to create engaging, visually-stunning editorial content – no design or development skills necessary. It is also relied upon by top brands who tap the company to create interactive branded content campaigns that Playbuzz then distributes at scale to its existing network of tens of thousands of publishers.
Playbuzz’s platform suits any topic, tone and audience, powering over 12,000 engagements per minute, and is proven to boost audience engagement, garnering metrics high above industry standards, such as 2 – 4 minute average session times (as compared to the 15 second industry average). Branded content campaigns powered by Playbuzz are consumed by 65% of users on average (as compared to the 24% industry benchmark).
“As Playbuzz continues to grow, it will increasingly become a strategic partner for brands and publishers, all of whom must speak the language of modern consumers. The Playbuzz platform enables them to do just that, translating their content to meet the needs of today’s readers,” said Harel Beit-On, Founder and General Partner of Viola Growth, who has joined Playbuzz’s board of directors. “Playbuzz’s innovative storytelling tools continue to drive the future of content creation and ensure publishers’ and brands’ stories are heard. We believe in the company’s excellent management team – with its strong creativity and operational skills – and are excited to join them as they enter this exciting phase.”