Marker Content Launches First Public Funding Round
Market Content, a New Frontiers entrepreneurship programme participant which is delivered by TU Dublin Hothouse and IADT Media Cube, will go live with its first public funding round this week, aiming to raise €50K on the Irish equity crowdfunding site SparkCrowdfunding.
Marker Content is an online article library, calling itself ‘The Getty Images of Written Content’ it aims to provide multiple agencies and publishers worldwide with articles that can be edited and customised to suit any businesses needs. When it launches in January, it will also be the only content stock library of its kind. Uniquely, it is using litigation software to gather articles, index, and format them. Director of the company, Anne Dunne, former Founder of Adeo Legal Technologies, is heading up the ‘content harvesting’ and can process up to 3,000 a week.
Marker Content is the brainchild of publishing entrepreneur Greta Dunne. Formally, Director of Youth Nation, Greta designed and managed two internationally successful online magazines, College Times and Teen Times. With combined viewership of 4 million and working with brands such as Netflix, Red Bull, and Universal, Greta managed 18 writers before she realised that much of the content she was looking for was already published online and yet not being noticed.
Commenting on the launch of the campaign, CEO Greta Dunne said: “When the websites sold I started to research the world of online content and discovered that there are over 2 million blog posts published a day that are not being seen, much less monetised. When I began talking to big digital marketing agencies, I found that the thirst for written content is overwhelming for a lot of them, and the demand is not being met in many cases. SMEs were my next port of call, and it was obvious very quickly that they were either paying too much for freelancers to write or spending too much time themselves trying to create posts. It didn’t make sense. I wanted to create a middle man that worked for everyone.”
The platform is straightforward, user-friendly and requires no subscription to read the articles thoroughly. “I have developed the site with Square 1 developers, the articles are encrypted and cannot be copied but can be fully viewed before purchase. I believe that too much emphasis is put on custom, exclusive content, and what’s important for businesses now is to be consistent. One long and expensive article once a month is fine, three relevant articles a week is much more effective.”
Selected as one of few Irish Start-Ups in the ALPHA Startup category of the 2019 WebSummit, Marker Content already has over 1,200 writers worldwide and over 50,000 articles. These numbers are growing steadily daily.
Crowdfunding and company information
https://www.sparkcrowdfunding.com/campaign/markercontent
About New Frontiers
‘New Frontiers’ is Enterprise Ireland’s national entrepreneur development programme. It is delivered by TU Dublin Hothouse, in conjunction with IADT Media Cube in Dun Laoghaire. It comprises three phases and offers successful entrepreneurs a combination of training, incubator space and up to €22,500 in a tax / equity-free stipend. Recruitment takes place circa every three months.