Culture Trip, a London-based media startup with a heavy tech bent (or is that the other way round?) has raised $20 million in Series A funding. The round is being led by PPF Group, the fund managed by entrepreneur Petr Kellner.
Culture Trip had previously raised $2 million in seed funding from various investors, including U.S.-based media investor Gordy Crawford.
Billed as producing and serving up content for the “culturally curious,” Culture Trip has to date published more than 30,000 articles and videos to provide cultural, travel and food recommendations.
It has offices in London, New York and Tel Aviv, which produce content and accept further submissions from over 40 other “country hubs” to enable Culture Trip’s content to span the globe.
But — surprise, surprise — as well its media credentials, the company, which is founded by psychiatrist Dr. Kris Naudts, is talking up its technology play, something it plans to invest heavily in post-Series A.
Specifically, Culture Trip says it’s built a bespoke knowledge graph that uses “AI technology” in order to create a more personalised experience for users. That sounds an awful like a good old-fashioned recommendation engine to me, but what do I know.
“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,” says Naudts in a statement. “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”.