Culture Trip, a global media/tech start-up for the culturally curious, announces their Series A funding round of $20M (£16.3M) from the PPF Group. Culture Trip had previously raised $2 million in seed funding from investors including media heavyweight US investor Gordy Crawford.
Founded by psychiatrist, Dr. Kris Naudts, Culture Trip has published more than 30,000 articles and videos designed to offer users cultural, travel and food recommendations wherever they are in the world. Culture Trip has recently opened three new offices in London, New York and Tel Aviv, with an innovative, blended approach to content production, filtering in submissions from its global community of over 40 country hubs and already attracting millions of users.
The investment will enable a significant acceleration of the business’ technology strategy, which utilises a bespoke knowledge graph – built using AI technology – in order to create more personalised experiences for users, helping them navigate through content more effectively. Additionally, Culture Trip seeks to use some of the investment for editorial expansion across the globe and to establish a commercial arm that will begin to monetize the company’s plethora of content and growing fan base.
Dr. Kris Naudts, CEO and Founder of Culture Trip identified a gap in culture-driven content that was highly personalized and localized. He commented;
“We’re committed to being at the forefront of providing users with the best cultural content and recommendations and enabling a free flow of knowledge about countries from around the world. Culture Trip’s knowledge graph allows the creation of a more meaningful experience for our users, deepening the personalisation of content discovery with every new read. This investment will enable us to further this technology, and also expand our presence in new hubs around the world, to continue to develop our content offering.”
Ladislav Chvatal, Chief Officer for Strategic Projects of PPF Group further commented,
“Culture Trip demonstrates exciting potential in both the media and tech landscapes, uniquely bridging a gap between curated content generation and proprietary technology creation. The company is taking a non-traditional approach to delivering cultural information, all while integrating some of today’s leading technologies. This new model of generating content for users refreshes today’s existing media market, making it an important venture that sees greater international growth and commercial development.”
