Upworthy operates a single-stream editorial site focused on surfacing and promoting videos with a social message and engineered virality. The company is prioritizing revenue growth through sponsored content and sponsorship-aligned topical sections rather than becoming a news outlet. Founders Eli Pariser and Peter Koechley say they plan to deepen coverage in areas like parenting and global health to create opportunities for underwritten sponsor sections. The business team has expanded from "less than one" full-time person to four as the company builds its commercial capabilities. Upworthy is also investing heavily in its technology and data analytics platform, which it built in-house to measure and create virality and to evaluate audience response in real time. Financially, the company recently raised new institutional capital to support these efforts and has prior seed backing from notable angel and media investors. Upworthy is a media startup that finds and republishes overlooked visual stories from the internet (YouTube and other sites), polishing them with attention-grabbing headlines to maximize social sharing. The team focuses on interest over timeliness, producing roughly 60 pieces of content per week and testing many headline variants (often 25+) to optimize engagement. Upworthy is data-driven and uses analytics platform SimpleReach to understand article performance. SimpleReach's CEO noted that, within its publisher network, about 20% of daily social actions come from Upworthy. The site experienced rapid audience growth, reaching 10.4 million unique monthly visitors in its first year (up from a prior high of 8.7 million). The company recently raised $4 million from investors, which the article cites alongside its audience growth.

Total raised

$12M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Sep 2013