Tel Aviv based content marketing distributor Keywee announced today that the company has successfully raised $9.1 million at the closing of their Series A round of financing. According to a statement by the company, they are planning a massive expansion to pump up their operations for product development at their home base in central Tel Aviv, as well as to grow the team at the New York marketing and sales office that serves as a forward operations center for their work there.
Keywee has set itself up as a distributor of content for marketers who are reaching out across the Web with intriguing posts aimed at building a loyal new readership, and better yet, paying customers. The company claims to be able to play the algorithms for social media platforms like Facebook and target the audiences that their customers are seeking.
Tackling the challenge of driving traffic to their clients’ web pages is no small task, as seen in a report by the Content Marketing Institute that showed that only 23% of B2C marketers reported positive ROI through their content marketing. Not surprisingly, the guys and gals over at Keywee are convinced that they know how to get it done better than the other folks out there.
If having the New York Times as an investor doesn’t impress you, well then, we don’t know what will
They do not seem to be alone in this belief, having attracted some significant support from big league players including The New York Times, Upwest Labs, Innovation Endeavors, which is run by Google icon Eric Schmidt, and Marker LLC, with the final two having led this round of funding for the startup. Even before this new injection of cash, Keywee boasted a client base of some 60 plus companies. Considering the market they are in, this is not a bad position to hold.
Keywee, a two-year-old startup founded by Yaniv Makover, joins what is already an increasingly packed space. Competitors include major content players such as Outbrain and Taboola, both of whom you have probably seen across the Web with suggested stories, vying for eyeballs as they chase after that rare bit of advertising dollar. While beating out these other well-established companies is likely to be an uphill battle for Keywee, the boost from today’s announcement is likely to propel them as a serious challenger to the rest of the field. How they choose to invest their newfound funds will be fun to watch as we wait and see what new products and innovation they’ll bring to the table.
Featured Image Credit: Keywee