TheNeeds is a personalized news-reader app that surfaces articles, blog posts, videos and social updates and learns from user interactions to tailor recommendations. Its core technology combines machine learning, collaborative filtering and editorial selection, plus real-time analytics to map an "interest DNA" for each user. The app launched as a web service last year, appeared on the Windows 8 store, and soft-launched on iOS last week; an Android release is planned for next summer. The interface uses a tiled layout, supports bookmarking and re-sharing, and can personalize feeds from users' Facebook and Twitter accounts. The six-person team is led by co-founders Gabriele Pansa and Luca Albertalli, with Emanuele Cesena contributing semantic-technology, machine-learning and security expertise. Financially, the company previously raised $500,000 from its founders and angels and is currently raising a larger $1.5 million seed round from angels and VCs.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Mar 2014