There’s so much content clutter on the Web these days that it can be tough for online publishers to keep their readers or viewers engaged, coming back each day for more. BigDoor, the Seattle upstart led by Keith Smith, Matt Shobe and Jeff Malek, believes it has the solution to that problem.
And the 29-person upstart just reeled in another $5 million in venture capital funding from Foundry Group, Founder’s Co-op and others, bringing total funding in the 3-year-old company to $13 million.
“The additional funds will be used to continue our focus on building a great product that helps publishers realize big improvements in user loyalty and engagement,” Smith tells GeekWire. “We are heavily weighted toward product development and less so on sales and marketing folks. We will continue our tech bias, but will also invest in sales and marketing as needed in the coming quarters.”
The company today is rolling out a new “gamified rewards program,” one that Smith said allows publishers to easily create their own system to reward readers or visitors. In early tests with about 25 customers, Smith said the results “were off the charts” with an average lift of 153 percent in user loyalty and 672 percent in engagement.
Big Door customers include MLB.com, Dell, Nickelodeon and Wetpaint as well as music artists Big K.R.I.T and 2 Chainz. Big Door faces competition from the likes of Silicon Valley’s Bunchball — which raised $6.5 million last year — and Badgeville — which raised $12 million from Norwest Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Trinity Ventures and others last summer.
Previously on GeekWire: Seattle gamification startup BigDoor buys OneTrueFan