Oyster is an ebook subscription service that launched in October 2013 and is based in New York City. The service offers unlimited access to over 100,000 books for $9.95 per month and is available on iOS devices including iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Oyster works with hundreds of publishers, including HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Rodale, Workman, Perseus and Melville House. The company closed a $14M funding round and said it will use the proceeds to scale the team and product. Oyster previously raised $3M in October 2012. The product focus remains on expanding content and growing its user base through its mobile apps. Oyster aims to be the first real unlimited subscription service for books, positioning itself as a Netflix-like offering for ebooks. The product will present a curated selection of "great books" chosen algorithmically and by editors rather than offering every title. Oyster plans community features to increase reader retention and focuses on smartphone apps with an improved in-app reading experience. The company says it has several deals in place with publishers and will share revenue with publishers based on the number of times a book is read. Oyster has been intentionally mysterious about the full scope of its content catalog but emphasizes curation and discovery as differentiators. The startup recently closed financing to support product development and launch.

Total raised

$17M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jan 2014