Phil Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of Yapert and former Motorola VP and Asia-Pacific president for Dell, has just completed a second round of fundraising for his new company. Yapert is an interactive mobile magazine which connects fans with trending content from the visual web based on their interests.
Second funding round completed
Today Yapert announced that it secured a $1.2 million seed investment from a group of angel investors. The company raised an additional $500,000 in funding in 2012, making the total investment into the platform a total of $1.7 million.
The company said Tech Coast Angels, which is the largest angel investor group in the U.S., led this latest funding round. Other investment groups which provided funds include the Desert Angels and Pasadena Angels.
Yapert on the move
According to Kelly, Yapert has logged more than 150,000 downloads over the last two months without any advertising or announcements. He believes adoption of the magazine will accelerate. At this point the Yapert app is only available on iOS, although the Android beta is currently in testing, and Kelly says the Windows Phone version is planned for next year.
The company said it is also planning on rolling out a number of additional features to Yapert, like a direct messaging feature with location targeting. Kelly said this will enable every entertainer and brand on the platform to directly message fans who have them on their favorites list. He said more announcements around future enhancements to the platform are planned over the next 12 months. According to Kelly, the company’s goal is to change how “people consume, share and interact with their favorite interests.”
“Yapert enhances the fan experience with real-time social media updates from every major platform and access to exclusive content via our mobile platform,” said Kelly. “We are very grateful to TCA, Desert and Pasadena Angels and all our investors for their support.”
