US-based content discovery platform Taboola closed a $117m series E round yesterday which included media company Advance Publications, internet company Yahoo Japan, cable operator Comcast and consumer goods provider Groupe Arnault.
The round was led by Fidelity Management and Research Company, the investment adviser for financial services firm Fidelity’s family of mutual funds, and also featured Marker, Steadfast Capital and Carlo De Benedetti, chairman of conglomerate Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso.
Taboola has created a platform that powers content discovery recommendations on websites including USA Today, Business Insider, Chicago Tribune and Fox Sports, and which provides about 200 billion content recommendations each month.
The company has now raised $157m since it was founded in Israel in 2007, having previously received funding from Marker, Steadfast, Pitango Venture Capital, WGI Group, Evergreen Venture Partners and private investor Eyal Gura.
Comcast, which invested through its Comcast Ventures subsidiary, Advance, Yahoo Japan and Groupe Arnault all participated in the round as new investors. Taboola had already formed a strategic partnership with Yahoo Japan in June 2014 to power recommendations on its online properties.
The capital will be used by Taboola to support technological innovation, with a focus on full-page personalisation, and to expand geographically. It has opened offices in New York, California, Tel Aviv, London and Bangkok.