Quiz and list publishing platform PlayBuzz has announced it has raised $16m (£11m) in venture capital funding to drive international expansion.
The second funding round, led by VC firm North83, takes the Israeli-based company’s total funding to more than $18m.
A statement announcing the round said the money will be used to help relocate the company’s HQ to New York and open new offices in Asia and Europe.
PlayBuzz attracts more than 80 million unique visitors a month and is consistently ranked as the most-shared publisher on Facebook by social analytics firm NewsWhip, ahead of socially focused publishers such as BuzzFeed and Huffington Post.
However, unlike its competitors it relies mainly on users and other publishers including the Daily Telegraph and AOL to create content, and does not employ a large team of editorial staff.
Chief executive and co-founder Shaul Olmert, son of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, told Business Insider: “If you look at YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, really the only way to grow is to be an open platform ... there’s only so much great content one publisher can produce. It’s about being the underlying platform.”
83North partner Arnon Dinur has joined PlayBuzz’s board as part of the investment. He said in a statement: “PlayBuzz’s dramatic growth and fast adoption points to the market’s thirst for a scalable platform to create viral audience engagement. We are thrilled to invest in this category leader, whose meteoric rise in popularity has made it the destination of choice for publishers seeking to engage today’s always-connected, always-evolving digital audiences.”
