Kitsu, a startup that plans to change the way we experience anime, announced that it has managed to raise $600,000 US in seed funding from VIZ Media, and Philippines-based entrepreneur Bernard Chong. Kitsu will use these funds to develop its content discovery platform at kitsu.io, led by founder and CEO Josh Fabian, who initially launched his project as Hummingbird in 2013.
“What makes me most excited about where Kitsu is going is how easy it’s going to be to connect with other anime and manga fans,” said Fabian. “We’ve been very proactive and thoughtful about how exactly to approach the social component of anime, and we think what we have will continue to drive that conversation moving forward.”
From now on, Kitsu will grow as a community that helps anime and manga fans track, share and discover more of what they love. Through a world-class recommendation engine layered with social, machine learning and more, Kitsu goes beyond the traditional “what to watch next” mode of thinking, becoming a one-of-a-kind player in content discovery for anime and manga.
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4 Comments on "Anime discovery platform Kitsu funded by VIZ Media"
[…] Formerly known as Hummingbird, it became Kitsu these past few weeks, gaining a fund from Viz Media. This came to my attention at first through Little Anime Blog, where they made a post about it and you can read it here. […]
Ooh,this is excellent news, great work being on top of it so quickly 👌
So it’s like MAL ?? I’m not sure i understand their purpose, but I’ll definitely be on the outlook for more news about it! 🙏
No problem, it’s what we do 😎
Seems like it, but with a smoother and more open system of sharing, and more freedom for fans to contribute. It’ll be interesting to see how it grows from here.
And you do it very well, muaaaah /blows kiss
Ooh, open system for sharing sounds amazing, like wikia but for tracking!
I really want a website to ducking let me add cartoons, anime, and you know, shows like RWBY, which MAL doesn’t have, and doujins aaah
Definitely will keep an eye out on your blog for more news about it /wink wink