Online publisher Scroll has purchased US-based social news aggregating start-up Nuzzel in a deal that will hand exits to payment technology provider Mol and internet companies DeNA and Digital Garage.
Founded in 2012, Nuzzel has created a platform that aggregates news from various publications based on their popularity on social networks. The aggregated content is used to create custom news feeds that are relevant to a particular industry, topic or keyword.
Scroll will use the technology to test which models work for curators and content creators. All advertising will be removed from Nuzzel’s newsletters post-acquisition, and its enterprise media intelligence subscription business will be spun off as a separate product.
Nuzzel raised $1.7m from media accelerator Matter and assorted angel investors in 2015, the year after it had secured $1.7m in seed capital from investors including DeNA, Digital Garage, Mol, World Innovation Lab and various individuals.
The company had received $1.7m in a separate seed round in 2012 featuring IDG Ventures, the affiliate of IT media company International Data Group that now functions as VC firm Ridge Ventures, as well as CRV, 500 Startups, SoftTech VC and Andreessen Horowitz.