Ranker operates a crowdsourced list site where users vote on items, follow lists, add items, and create lists of their own. The company uses its collected data to build an “opinion graph” (supplemented with Freebase and Factual data) to reveal how opinions are related. Ranker licenses its polling technology to other publishers and aims to develop a data business to complement revenue from advertising and affiliate links. The site reported nearly 8 million visitors and more than 78 million pageviews in the past month. Clark Benson is founder and CEO and has framed the opinion graph as a long-term product opportunity beyond the consumer site. Ranker has been monetizing through ads and affiliates while pursuing data-product opportunities for third parties. Ranker offers a list-based platform that harnesses the "wisdom of crowds" by letting visitors vote on and rank topics to produce CrowdRankings such as best TV shows and hottest celebrities. It also publishes original, non-crowd-ranked lists and aggregates interest-graph data using semantic, linked datasets. The site integrates data from partners including Freebase and Factual to power its connected list-making. Ranker launched in August 2009 and in March 2011 reported about 1.6 million monthly unique visitors. The company plans to use new financing to staff up, add more datasets and port its ranking technology to other platforms and sites. Clark Benson is the founder and CEO; his prior startup eCrush was acquired by Hearst Magazines Digital Media in 2006. Ranker is a user-driven list-aggregation site that launched a beta in August 2009 after the company began in 2008 with founder Clark Benson’s initial capital. The site lets users create and find lists across categories like People, Music, TV, Food/Drink, Tech, and Books/Comics, using a backend database, drag-and-drop list creation, and support for images and YouTube videos. As of January 2010 the company reported roughly 150,000 monthly visitors. Content is largely user-generated, though some items are sourced from external databases and credited to generic usernames. The site has some bugs and formatting issues, and the company says the new financing will be used to hire more developers. Ranker’s FAQ also promises near-term expansion of social networking features to deepen user engagement.

Total raised

$4M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jun 2013