Social recommender engine gets USD 25 million — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Personalization, personalization, personalization} Social recommender engine gets USD 25 million

18 Jun 2007 at 18:25 GMT Timo Poropudas

MyStrands, a developer of social recommendation technologies, has raised USD 25 million in Series B funding. MyStrands develops technologies that help people to discover things they like and didn't know about already.

The investment was lead by Antonio Asensio, 25-year-old Spanish media mogul and CEO of Grupo Zeta, the third largest media group in Spain. Existing investors Debaeque and Sequel backed this round, which brings total investment in the company to USD 31 million.

Founded in 2003, MyStrands has developed a social recommender engine that is able to provide real-time personalized recommendations of products and services through computers, mobile phones and other internet-connected devices. Currently, MyStrands employs a team of 50 people.

The company believes that the future of the web is about personalization. Personalized TV stations, personalized advertising, personalized news, personalized shopping, personalized music and entertainment experiences, wherever you happen to be whether it's at home, on the go, at a friend's house or bar.

“In a world of content overload, aggregating and understanding people’s preferences is going to be key to personalizing the way people access and enjoy digital content,” says MyStrands’ CEO Francisco J Martin.

“The new funds will allow us to remain independent and continue investing in developing technologies and new services to help people organize and explore digital media.”

“Recommendation technologies will allow media companies to deliver personalized content and targeted advertising to consumers”, says Antonio Asensio.

Asensio is the Executive President and owner of Grupo Zeta, the third largest media conglomerate in Spain. Now 25 years old, Antonio assumed the control of Grupo Zeta at the age of 19 and since then has expanded and grown the media group. Grupo Zeta owns among other assets 10 newspapers, 16 magazines and TV initiatives.