NewsCred Closes $15 Million Financing Round to Reinvent Marketing Through Quality Content

NEW YORK --(Business Wire)--

NewsCred, the world's leading content marketing and syndication platform, today announced its $15 million financing round led by Mayfield Fund, with participation by new investor Greycroft Partners and existing investors FirstMark Capital and IA Ventures. With this investment, NewsCred will accelerate its mission to deliver quality content experiences to the world's most powerful brands, enabling marketers and publishers to drive traffic, leads and revenue through content marketing. The company also announced that Rajeev Batra, Partner at Mayfield Fund, will join NewsCred's board of directors.

"Last year was a banner year for NewsCred. We saw an 11-fold increase in revenue, a 570% growth in new customers and we acquired Daylife, the acclaimed cloud publishing platform. We proved that our products and services answer a universal question looming over every marketer: how do I access the quality and volume of content that I need to fuel and scale my marketing initiatives across social media, e-mail and the web " said Shafqat Islam, Chief Executive Officer, NewsCred. "As the demand for content marketing resources explodes, we have the strategy and capital necessary to execute with purpose and speed."

NewsCred's product suite includes fully licensed content from over 2,500 world-class publishers, including The New York Times, The Guardian and The Economist; the publishing tools and teams necessary to curate and tailor content experiences; and the technology needed to design and build campaigns with speed and scale. By activating quality content across integrated marketing initiatives, NewsCred clients like Pepsi, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Overstock.com, Toyota and AIG are demonstrating the ROI of content marketing through increased social traffic, lead generation and revenue growth.

"As the leading content marketing and syndication platform, NewsCred is enabling its clients to drive exponential growth in traffic fom social referrals, triple digit percentage increase in unique visitors and double digit percentage growth in email open rates," said Rajeev Batra, Partner, Mayfield Fund. "Marketing is being disrupted by software, Big Data and the need for high quality content, which we have witnessed firsthand given our involvement with several leading marketing software companies. For marketers, content is the currency for establishing authentic relationships with their consumers. We are excited to partner with the NewsCred team, which has demonstrated the vision and execution to dominate the content marketing space."

In the coming year, NewsCred will use this investment to rapidly scale the development of its products and technology for Fortune 500 brands. Through its trusted relationships with brands, publishers, and technology partners, NewsCred will continue to make it effortless for marketers to publish quality content on any channel - social, web, mobile as well as marketing automation and social publishing platforms.

"We're investing in NewsCred because we see them as the definitive leader in the content marketing industry," said Alan Patricof, Managing Director, Greycroft Partners and longtime investor in Buddy Media (News - Alert). "More than 30% of marketers' budgets will be devoted to content marketing this year. Global brands are looking for trusted partners with the experience and creativity to deliver quality content experiences, consistently and at scale. With today's investment, NewsCred will be the go-to partner for every brand and publisher in the content ecosystem."

NewsCred has raised $5M in previous rounds of funding from prominent investors, including FirstMark Capital, IA Ventures, Floodgate Fund, Lerer Ventures, AOL (News - Alert) Ventures and others.

About NewsCred

NewsCred puts content at the heart of every business. As the world's leading content marketing and syndication platform, NewsCred provides brands and publishers with access to fully-licensed articles, images and video from more than 2,500 world-class sources.

Through powerful curation technology and an experienced editorial team, NewsCred empowers brands and publishers to drive new revenue and deliver the content their audiences need, want and share. The company builds custom content solutions with speed and scale - from niche editorial sections and thought leadership portals to social media and email marketing campaigns.

Founded in 2008 by Shafqat Islam, Iraj Islam and Asif Rahman, NewsCred has offices in New York, London and Dhaka. Learn more at newscred.com and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @newscred.

About Mayfield Fund

Mayfield Fund is a global venture capital firm with over $3 billion under management and a 43-year history of investing in relationships. Mayfield invests primarily in early-stage IT companies that leverage the drivers of mobile, cloud/SaaS (News - Alert), social, energy tech, and big data. Since its founding in 1969, the firm has invested in more than 500 companies, resulting in over 100 IPOs and more than 100 mergers or acquisitions. For more information, visit www.mayfield.com.

About Greycroft Partners LLC

Greycroft Partners LLC is a venture capital partnership, formed to invest in promising Internet and digital media companies. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Greycroft has deepened its bench to provide significant resources to early stage companies in its area of focus and, as a result, now has even greater coverage in these two markets. For more information, visit http://greycroft.com/.