Inkitt raises $59 million

Lisa Marie Münster Lisa Marie Münster | 05.10.2021

The e-book start-up wants to further conquer the North American market in particular. German publishers are well represented among the investors.

In 2019, it was still 16 million US dollars, now Inkitt has raised 59 million US dollars. The Series B financing round is led by the managing director of the US venture capitalist New Enterprise Associates Scott Sandell. Other well-known names are also involved, such as the CEO of the Axel Springer publishing house Mathias Döpfner, Stefan von Holtzbrinck of Holtzbrinck Digital, the publisher's venture capitalist, and Michael Lynton, chief executive of Snap. In addition, the existing investors Kleiner Perkins, HV Capital, Redalpine and Speedinvest participate. According to information from Techcrunch, Inkitt is thus worth 390 million US dollars.

The Berlin-based e-book start-up wants to use the money to expand its technology and further develop its algorithms. The team of 80 employees is also to be expanded, especially for the North American market. For Inkitt, the US is the most important market for expansion because many of its books are published in English.

The startup offers amateur authors to publish their stories, which Inkitt analyzes with the help of AI and evaluates the response of readers. The end result can be a book deal; US authors have made millions doing this. The Berliners also have a reading app that provides musical accompaniment to the texts. Annually, Inkitt makes $38 million from the app alone, Techcrunch reports.

Founded in 2013 by Ali Albazaz, the startup says it has seven million users and 300,000 writers.


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Related companies

HV Capital
HV Capital
Investor 2017 München
HV Capital
Early-stage and growth VC with a focus on internet and tech startups.
Inkitt
Startup 2014 Berlin
Inkitt
World’s first reader-powered book publisher, offering an online community for talented authors and book lovers.

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