Revolutionary Audio Platform Vurbl Completes $1.3 Million Pre-Seed Round Ahead of Launch
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world slowed down. One thing that didn’t come to a halt was the Vurbl team and their mission to build a comprehensive and streamlined platform for audio streaming.
Vurbl, the revolutionary online platform bringing the world of audio to one place, where content creators can upload, grow their audience and monetize their audio creations, today announced that it has closed at a $1.3 million seed round. The round was led by AlphaEdison with other participants including Halogen Ventures, TEN13, Angellist, and several strategic Angels from the audio, advertising, and entertainment spaces.
“We believe Vurbl is opening up an entirely new audio market for listeners, creators, and brands. This platform has the potential to change the way we consume audio on the internet and the timing is spot on. If anyone can pull this off this enormous opportunity, it’s the team at Vurbl,” states Nick Grouf, managing partner at AlphaEdison.
The pre-seed funds are being used to develop and launch the Vurbl platform with over 25 million pieces of audio and podcasts creating a place for content creatures, curators, and listeners. Additionally, Vurbl has developed a network of editorial and partnership teams to support the ongoing curation of content for users and creators.
Jesse Draper, a general partner at Halogen Ventures, states that they see Vurbl as one of the largest opportunities on the internet today, continuing that “billion-dollar businesses like this are hard to come by. It was a no brainer for us to invest in Vurbl. Massive companies have been built on streaming music and to combine this with user-generated content is a formula for enormous growth. We invested in Vurbl and Audra’s team because they are building a single source for all audio. We think this is going to be the YouTube for audio — which currently doesn’t exist.”
CEO and Co-Founder of Vurbl, Audra Gold, has navigated and led the fundraising and launch of the company during the pandemic. While working remotely, the Vurbl team developed the foundation of the platform and created significant media and advertising partnerships.
“Though it was challenging to raise money and build the Vurbl platform from our homes amidst a global pandemic, our team is made up of people who are not going to back down from a challenge and everyone made the most out of the situation. If anything, we all worked harder toward the launch of the product because the need for a service like Vurbl continued to increase during the lockdown and we aim to deliver a great audio product the whole family can enjoy.” Gold continues that, “Given the current climate, we think the timing is perfect to build the largest user-generated content audio site in the world and become an essential global digital media destination for those seeking information and entertainment through audio.”
Vurbl provides listeners looking to connect with voices and information of all types with new and personalized playlists and stations so they can easily put in their earbuds, click play, lean back and enjoy. With audio snippets, listeners and creators alike can take their favorite part of any of the audio on the platform then “snip-it” to save it, share it, or add it to a playlist.
“We’ve seen audio become a greater part of our lives consuming content through podcasts, e-books along with the music. However, search and advertisement remain unsolved in the field. We’re excited to partner with Audra and the team as they help the world discover and consume audio content and give creators the tools to grow their communities,” adds An Vo, Investment Manager at TEN13.
Vurbl will launch its web-based platform experience in Q4 2020 with millions of pieces of discoverable audio, playlists, and human-curated audio stations. The company plans to announce additional updates including the launch of mobile apps, downloadable desktop app, and connected in-home devices for listeners to enjoy audio streams anytime and anywhere.
Founder, Editor-In-Chief // A native Angeleno. John studied engineering at UCLA; founded Schmoozd, an offline social tech networking event in LA with 30,000 subs; ran a startup accelerator (StartEngine). Worked for several major brands like Toyota, DIRECTV, Hitachi, ICANN, and Raytheon. A mentor at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Entrepreneur School, Dr. David Choi. And advises a dozen local LA startups building amazing tech in various industries; and invested in some. // Let's Connect: john@lastartups.com
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