Content Syndicate Ramps Up Senior Management Content Syndicate announces the addition of senior management across technology, business divisions in the first phase of its expansion plans.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: 7th April 2009
Venkat Amirisetty is the new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) overseeing the development of Content Syndicate’s online platform strategy. Prior to the new position, Venkat was based in Silicon Valley, US for 15 years. His last stint was as Technical Director for Motorola in Sunnyvale, California where he managed an engineering team and created a new mobile application platform. The technology has been adopted by 400+ developers and currently ships in more than 5 million handsets annually. Venkat previously headed the engineering team at iPlanet, a Netscape and Sun Microsystems alliance.
During his five-year tenure there, he helped create an enterprise application integration middleware system, managed a team of 30 engineers and deployed the system at several Fortune 500 firms. Prior to this he worked in the engineering team at Sun Microsystems, where he was a core member of the J2EE team. He started his career with Tata Consultancy Services and was based out of Zurich, Switzerland for two years, before moving to Cupertino, California.
Venkat holds several patents in content architecture and has presented several technical papers in US, Europe and Latin America. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and a MBA in Finance from Leavey School of Business from Santa Clara University, California.
Emile Cubeisy also joins Content Syndicate’s Board of Directors. Emile has over 15 years of experience in technology, government and venture capital space. Emile is currently a Director of IV Holdings, Jeeran, Conservus, ShooFeeTV, Arab Media Holding and NetCorps. He previously served as Vice-President, at Accelerator Technology Holdings. Prior to ATH, he served as the Director of ICT Promotion and Advisor to the Ministry of ITC, Jordan and was Programme Director of the Jordanian Education Initiative. Emile holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Southern California and was selected as a member of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in 2006.
Joining Content Syndicate as Vice-President – Business Development, Chetan Cariappa is a business technology professional with more than a decade of experience. Based in the US for the last six years, Chetan formerly worked for Core Services Corporation, where he managed several major multi-million dollar accounts, such as F5 Networks, Vonage, Eli Lilly, AICPA, and Old Mutual. Prior to that, he worked for Oracle Corporation, Galaxy Software and 24/7 Customer.com. Chetan holds a Bachelors in Engineering and a Masters in Technology from the University of Wisconsin with a specialization in project management and Six Sigma. At Content Syndicate, Chetan will oversee business development, strategic alliances for CSi – Content Syndicate’s web content and development arm.
Also on board is Jonathan De Guzman, Content Syndicate’s new Business Development Manager. Jonathan has an extensive background in media in the UAE covering advertising, digital media, and marketing. Jonathan has previously worked for T-1 Creative, Zurc Media and handled major accounts such as Goodyear, Aggreko, Technosat, Subway, Sofra Worldwide and many more. He will oversee business alliances with agencies and corporates for customized content projects.
Maddy Reddy, Founder and CEO of Content Syndicate commented, “I am delighted to welcome these accomplished individuals to our company who will each play a significant role aligned to our long-term strategy. I am confident that their outstanding credentials, experience and expertise will go a long way in contributing to our success and growth.”
About Content Syndicate:
Content Syndicate's award winning service helps publishers, agencies, corporates and governments acquire, commission and sell customized, exclusive and syndicated content in more than 200 languages through its patent pending online platform.
Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates/ Amman, Jordan: 12 March 2009
Content Syndicate® has received strategic investment from Interactive Ventures Holding Company (‘IV Holdings’), a leading Middle East venture capital firm based out of Amman, Jordan. The funding will be used to support Content Syndicate’s rapid growth and development of its innovative content services platform.
“In its private beta alone, Content Syndicate with its disruptive business model, track record, strong customer validation and revenues, made a great fit in our investment strategy and portfolio. Very few early-stage companies have this kind of amazing traction and robust business model,” said Dr.Fawaz Zu’bi, Chairman of IV Holdings.
Content Syndicate’s patent-pending platform, helps publishers commission, buy, sell, syndicate content in more than 200 languages. With no entry-level costs, coupled with its ‘pay for performance’ model, Content Syndicate helps publishers to monetize their content further, minimizing the inefficiency and generates additional revenues.
“Content Syndicate is the strategic platform that publishers, content providers and buyers are looking for globally for a competitive edge. With the tougher markets, we believe their timing, technology and highly scalable service, they are poised to be a success,” added Dr.Zu’bi of IV Holdings.
According to Romieke/Cision, a leading media intelligence provider, there are over 218,000 publishers of magazines, newspapers, trade journals, online portals, news wires and contract publishers. Of these, more than 4,000 publishers are present in the Middle East alone, a focus market for Content Syndicate. Outlook, a respected industry research firm, pegs the content syndication and aggregation business at US$68 billion.
“IV Holdings with their impressive portfolio and focus gave us the confidence. Their experience, network and insights into the industry made them the ideal strategic investor, and partner we were seeking,” said Maddy Reddy, Founder and CEO of Content Syndicate.
Content Syndicate has already successfully raised a substantial amount of early stage capital from influential angel investors in US, UK, UAE and India. The new investment will be used towards research and development, recruitment and business expansion.
Prior to this major investment, in September 2007 Content Syndicate was a finalist at Seedcamp®, a leading start-up launch pad in London. CS was selected from 260 start-ups in 42 countries. Similarly in February 2008, the firm was selected in the top 3 of 150 start-ups by the Arab Business Angels Network®, a subsidiary of Dubai International Capital. Besides this, it also won the Best Start-up at the Visa® Business and TiE-ISB® Connect awards. It was also a finalist at the recent Lloyds TSB® Awards and IIT-Chennai Connect initiative.
Currently in private beta and scheduled to go live in Q2 of 2009, Content Syndicate has already signed up more than 350 blue-chip customers, besides 80 publishers from several major markets. The company intends to extend its service support other media - audio, video and mobile content in Q4 2009.
Editor’s Notes:
About IV Holdings:
IV Holdings provides capital, expertise and a synergistic network of ventures to help enable and grow innovative within and outside the Arab world by investing in best of breed ventures in the animation, internet, content, mobile, media and telecom domains. Its current portfolio includes Content Syndicate, Jeeran, Conservus, Shofee TV, Talasim, Media Scope, with several other major investments underway.
Conservus, one of IV Holding's portfolio companies has raised an additional round of funding from Intel Capital recently.
Content Syndicate's service helps corporates, governments and publishers with customized, exclusive and syndicated content in more than 200 languages through its online platform.
Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates/Hyderabad, AP, India: November 12th, 2008
At a recent event jointly organized by TiE and the Indian School of Business (ISB), Content Syndicate emerged as the winner in the ‘Cool Start-ups’ category.
TiE-ISB Connect 2008 took place at ISB Hyderabad from November 5th to 7th. Sponsors included Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Times of India Group, Satyam, Totem Infrastructure and the Indu Group. This is the third year for TiE-ISB Connect and it is also one of Asia’s largest investor-entrepreneurial events. Tie-ISB Connect 2008 featured over 700 delegates, 30 venture capital firms and various media companies.
The event attracted over 200 business plans of which 149 executive summaries were short-listed for the next round. 30 of the short-listed firms were invited for a final presentation before a judging panel comprising of senior partners and management from Accel Ventures, Google, Canaan Partners, Helion Ventures, Venture East, Clearstone, PA, Virtusa, IDG Ventures, Nexus Capital, Sun Microsystems, Ojas Ventures, Totem and Kuruvindam.
The criteria for selecting the winners were based on the strength of business model, innovation, the team, maturity of business, track record, financials, long-term plans and scalability.
Commenting on the award, Content Syndicate’s Founder & CEO, Maddy Reddy, said, “We are honoured to be a part of this prestigious event. It was a great experience and provided us with a strong validation of our business. I would like to extend my gratitude to our clients, team, investors and partners for playing a vital role in making this happen.”
Content Syndicate's Words on Demand® service helps agencies, corporates, small and medium sized businesses and publishers globally to commission, distribute, buy and sell customised content in more than 200 languages. Currently in beta, CS has serviced more than 300 corporate clients and over 80 publishers for a range of content services. CS has positioned itself as one of the world’s fastest growing and innovative content services firm.
Because of its unique patent pending web-based business model, the firm can scale up to create and facilitate buy-sell transactions of content in any major language, regardless of the client's location, need or time with minimal costs.
Last September Content Syndicate was a finalist at Seedcamp, Europe’s premier launch pad in London and was selected from 260 start-ups in 42 countries for its unique business model.
In February 2008, CS was selected in the top 3 of 150 start-ups by the Arab Business Angels Network®, a subsidiary of Dubai International Capital (DIC) at DIFC.
Content Syndicate also won the ‘Best New SME’ and the ‘Best SME in the GCC’ award at the recent Visa SME Awards in October 2008. The firm is also a finalist at the forthcoming Lloyds TSB Business Awards in December 2008.
About TiE:
TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, also known as Talent Ideas and Enterprise is the world’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship. Founded in 1992, in Silicon Valley, the organization today has over 12,000 members across 52 chapters in 11 countries besides 1,800 plus Charter Members – comprising of top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, private equity firms, angel investors, consulting and law firms.
About ISB:
Founded in 2001, ISB is one of the world's premier and youngest business schools. Working in academic alliances with The Kellogg School of Management at North western University; Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the London Business School (LBS), ISB offers post graduate courses; high-powered Executive Education programmes for CEOs and senior managers; and a two-year Research Fellowship Programme through its world class campus at Hyderabad, India.
ISB is ranked in the Top 20 of the Financial Times’ Global MBA 2008 rankings. For more information, please visit – http://www.isb.edu
Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Content Syndicate Scoops Visa® 2008 Business Awards Content services company garners top awards in three distinguished categories at the recently held Visa® SME Awards.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: October 29th, 2008
At a recent industry event organized by YourBusiness magazine and Visa®, Content Syndicate was awarded two prestigious awards, emerging triumphant in the ‘Best New SME’ as well as the overall ‘Best SME in the GCC’ categories. The awards were sponsored by HP and Visa International as Platinum Sponsor of the overall winner category.
The 2008 YourBusiness SME Awards marks the anniversary of YourBusiness publication in the market and by extension seeks to reward entrepreneurs for growth. Sponsors for these awards include Visa International, Emirates NBD, Etisalat, HP, Hamriyah Free Zone, DHL and Forsa. The awards were open to local and expatriate business owners of small to medium enterprises, or SMEs that employ less than 250 staff, earn up to AED 50 million and operate in the Gulf region. The awards ceremony took place at the Park Hyatt Hotel on 20th October 2008 and was attended by over 200 invitees.
Commenting on the win, Content Syndicate’s Founder & CEO, Maddy Reddy, said, “With SMEs constituting nearly 80% of the business ecosystem, both in the region and globally, we are honoured to be awarded this recognition. It’s also easy to overlook the fact that some of the biggest firms out there were all ‘garage start-ups’ or SMEs when they started out. This award is an important milestone for us in the long and exciting journey ahead.”
The judging panel comprised of senior management from Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, Visa, HP, Etisalat, HSBC, Emirates NBD, Citibank, YourBusiness advisory board and business consultants. From the thousands of entries received the past two months, the judges shortlisted 33 overall finalists across six categories based on quality, business potential, innovation, track record, scalability and the overall strength of the business model. This was followed by a detailed review of each company and concluded with voting and nomination process.
Reddy also shared the honours in the ‘Best New Entrepreneur’ category and added, “The sheer quality of entrants and finalists reveal that there is abundant vigour and drive for success within the SME sector and is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit in the region."
Content Syndicate's Words on Demand® service helps agencies, corporates, small and medium sized businesses and publishers to commission, distribute, buy and sell customised content in more than 200 languages. Having serviced more than 300 corporate clients, agencies and over 80 publishers for a range of editorial and copywriting services, CS has positioned itself as the region’s only specialist content services firm.
Because of its unique patent pending web-based business model, the firm can scale up to create impactful content in any major language, regardless of the client's location, need or time with minimal costs.
Prior to this major haul of awards, last September Content Syndicate was a finalist at Seedcamp®, a leading business launch pad in London and was selected from 260 start-ups in 42 countries for its innovative business model. In February this year, CS was selected in the top 3 of 150 start-ups by the Arab Business Angels Network®, a subsidiary of Dubai International Capital (DIC) at DIFC.
The firm is also a finalist at the upcoming Lloyds TSB® Business Awards and TiE-ISB awards scheduled to be held in November 2008.
Reddy commented, "It feels great to win or even be nominated for these coveted awards. I would like to extend my gratitude to all our clients, team, investors and partners for playing a vital role in our growth and success.”
Editor’s Notes:
About Visa Inc.:
Visa Inc. operates the world's largest retail electronic payments network providing processing services and payment product platforms. This includes consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, which are offered under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands. Visa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world, and Visa/PLUS is one of the world's largest global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in more than 170 countries.
About Content Syndicate: Content Syndicate’s innovative Words on Demand® platform helps content providers and buyers to commission, distribute, buy and sell content, that’s exclusive, customised and personalised for their unique requirements. Extending beyond English, Content Syndicate’s click-and-mortar business offers a range of quality content services in more than 200 languages to businesses and individuals.
With the motto ‘content is not a commodity’, Content Syndicate is working on its vision to offer content services cross platforms, media and languages. Content Syndicate is incorporated as independent entities in the US, UK, UAE and India.
Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Content Syndicate joins the Global Bartercard Network Content Syndicate, joins the Bartercard network - the World's largest barter exchange. With over 55,000 businesses in its exchange, Bartercard members can now transact and avail Content Syndicate's range of services cash-free.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: August 1st, 2007
Content Syndicate has joined the Bartercard network, thereby giving it instant access to 55,000 businesses across 13 countries. Using the unique 'no cash required' proposition offered to Bartercard members Content Syndicate will use this to grow its customer base.
Commenting on the strategic decision to join the Bartercard network Maddy Reddy, CEO of Content Syndicate said, “Businesses have a tendency to spend a lot of money on infrastructure costs as well as day-to-day operational costs. This initiative is targeted at helping thousands of small and medium-sized businesses and start-ups globally, who need to get their business message across through quality content without any financial strain.”
More than 55,000 businesses in 13 countries can now utilise Content Syndicate’s range of business writing services, which include everything from newsletters, brochures, translation, reports, press releases, corporate identity kits, copywriting and range of other services in more than 200 languages instantly through Content Syndicate’s secure web-portal.
Bartercard is a unique service network that is funded not by cash but by goods and services exchanged or bartered with other Bartercard members. Unlike traditional credit, debit cards or cheques, a Bartercard transaction requires member business to exchange goods and services with other member businesses for Trade Dollars. These Trade Dollars are credited to the member’s Bartercard account when the goods or services are exchanged. Members can use their Bartercard Trade Dollars to purchase goods and services from any other Bartercard member.
According to Dun & Bradstreet there are 83 million businesses in over 200 countries – a majority of them are SMBs with limited budget and resources for advertising, marketing, PR or website content but need to stand out in the market place.
Commenting on the unique initiative, Fadi Dabbagh, Managing Director, Bartercard UAE: “Globally and locally our members save valuable cash-flow and boost their profitability by taking advantage of the Bartercard network. We welcome Content Syndicate onboard to provide their content services, which are needed by every business to get their message across effectively.”
Bartercard members in Australia, UK, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Thailand, India, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand can now instantly commission, customise all their business writing and content needs.
“In essence we can help Bartercard members, create a powerful identity; promote their product and services effectively by taking an integrated approach online and offline through our content services,” added Reddy.
About Content Syndicate:
Content Syndicate’s innovative Words on Demand® platform helps businesses commission, distribute, buy and sell content, that’s exclusive, customised and personalised for their unique requirements. Extending beyond English, Content Syndicate’s click-and-mortar business offers a range of quality content services in more than 218 languages to businesses and individuals.
#Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Bartercard: (www.bartercard.com)
Bartercard is committed to helping Small to Medium Sized businesses (SMBs) grow and achieve financial success by facilitating a trade exchange network that offers dynamic and effective ways of conducting business. Although the concept of barter is thousands of years old, bartering through Bartercard is the most innovative way of combining modern technology, a community of businesses, and indirect and direct marketing channels to improve customer base, sales, profit and cash flow.
Since its inception in Australia, over the past 17 years Bartercard grown to become the largest and fastest growing barter network and revolutionized day-to-day business. Bartercard currently trades over $1.3 billion in cashless transactions per annum, and operates in 13 countries and six languages and plans to open operations in four more countries in the next 12 months.
Content Syndicate selected for ABAN investor event ABAN - a subsidiary of Dubai International Capital selects Content Syndicate from over 150 companies at the region’s biggest angel investor event.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: 17th February 2008
Content Syndicate® was recently selected as one amongst five companies by the Arab Business Angels Network (ABAN) from over 150 start-ups at the Dubai International Finance Centre. The five companies which represented a cross-section of verticals pitched their business plans to investors. This prestigious entrepreneurs-meet-investors event was attended by the region’s influential high net worth individuals, investors, private equity firms, venture capitalists.
ABAN, backed by Dubai International Capital (DIC) as its founder and lead angel with support from Intel Capital and Dubai Silicon Oasis as corporate angels was set up to provide high potential entrepreneurial ventures with mentorship, networking and capital. This year’s plan includes channelling US$10 million seed-capital fund into early-stage ventures and simultaneously creating new angel investor networks.
Speaking on the initiative, Maddy Reddy, Founder & CEO of Content Syndicate said, “ABAN provided us a great opportunity to showcase our unique content platform to the investment community. This further reiterates that with a solid business model that addresses a serious business need, you can be distinctive from the rest.”
Content Syndicate has already successfully raised a substantial amount of seed capital from angel investors in US, UK, UAE and India within the first year of operations.
Prior to this, in September 2007, Content Syndicate was the only firm from the Middle East to be selected from over 260 companies across 40 countries for SeedCamp® London- a major initiative of Europe’s top angel investors, venture capitalists and technology firms.
Angel investors are affluent individuals offering capital to start-up companies in exchange for ownership equity. Funding costs vary and, in addition to financial investment, angel investors also offer expertise, acumen and business networks. Angel investment is a common second round of financing for high-growth start-ups, and accounts in total for almost as much money invested annually as all venture capital funds combined, as but into more than ten times as many companies
Walid Hanna, CEO of ABAN said, “By building an angel investor network we hope to start to fill the equity gap currently faced by entrepreneurs attempting to launch their ventures. Angel investors would also provide the start-ups they invest in with a guiding hand that would greatly increase their chances of success.”
Notes and media contacts About ABAN:
The Arab Business Angels Network (ABAN) was conceived by the Young Arab Leaders and Dubai Holding during the Clinton Initiative in September 2005, with Dubai International Capital as its founder and lead Angel. ABAN acts as a link between entrepreneurs and Angel Investors to foster high potential new ventures and to build a community of Angel Investors across the Arab world.
Established in 2004, DIC is an international investment company focused on both private equity and public equity. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Dubai Holding, DIC manages an international portfolio of diverse assets that provide its stakeholders with value growth, diversification, and strategic investments. Assets under management total over US$12 billion.
About Content Syndicate: Content Syndicate’s innovative Words on Demand® platform helps corporates and publishers from across the world to commission, distribute, buy and sell content that’s exclusive, customised for their unique requirements in over 200 languages.
Content Syndicate is working on its vision to offer content services across platforms, media and languages. Founded in late 2006, CS is incorporated as independent entities in the US, UK, UAE and India.
#Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Content Syndicate completes one year Dubai-based content services company completes one year of landmark operations.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: 17th February 2008
Set up in November 2006, Content Syndicate recently announced the completion of one year of operations in Dubai. Delving beyond the concept of words and ideas, the company established itself as an agency of writers, editors and translators to augment operations across the wide array of media and publishing companies in the region.
In the course of a year, Content Syndicate has amassed over 150 clients across a spectrum of industries delivering exclusive content services. Content Syndicate’s Founder & CEO, Maddy Reddy, commented, "It’s a great feeling to celebrate our first anniversary. For a relative newcomer, our client portfolio speaks for itself. The first year was a period of learning, developing, building our team and setting our systems in place. We would like to thank all our clients, syndicate members and partners for being a part of this early chapter and making it a remarkable year."
Since its inception, Content Syndicate has achieved several milestones. June 2007 saw the launch of its revolutionary online portal (www.contentsyndicate.com) enabling content providers and buyers to converge and purchase, sell and commission content. Even prior to the portal’s official launch, a slew of companies from multi-nationals to small and medium sized businesses have used Content Syndicate's platform for a range of services. These include multi-lingual content work ranging from brochure copy, web site content, corporate identity manuals, newsletters, white-papers, case studies, technical writing, editorial services, blog updates, press releases, translation; copywriting; search engine optimisation; case studies; resumes to publishers for features, news, reports, photographs and interviews.
A spin-off division, CS2 was unveiled the following month in July. CS2 is an initiative to capitalize on the prowess of local and international writers to provide specialized content across different verticals. Supported by an extensive network of affiliates to complement their copywriting initiatives, thus creating powerful creative synergy, CS2 provides copy with value-adds to any company regardless of size, industry or geographical location.
In September this year, Content Syndicate was handpicked as a Seedcamp finalist from over 260 companies across 40 countries. “The selection process was intensive and that we made it as a finalist is in itself quite an outstanding accomplishment for a start-up, especially as we were the only company from the Middle East. The Seedcamp Week offered a great opportunity for us to showcase our online platform and content services to some of Europe’s leading investors and entrepreneurs.”
Reddy added, "The second year is going to be an even exciting phase of our growth as we continue to strengthen our local presence and further expand into international markets by seizing opportunities that would lead us to deliver top-notch services. We expect to make significant announcements in the coming months concerning new divisions and service lines." Reddy concluded, “Year Two is only going to be bigger and better.”
About Content Syndicate:
Content Syndicate’s innovative Words on Demand® platform helps content providers and buyers to commission, distribute, buy and sell content, that’s exclusive, customised and personalised for their unique requirements. Extending beyond English, Content Syndicate’s click-and-mortar business offers a range of quality content services in more than 218 languages to businesses and individuals.
With the motto ‘content is not a commodity’, Content Syndicate is working on its vision to offer content services across platforms, media and languages. Founded in late 2006 by Maddy Reddy, CS is incorporated as independent entities in the US, UK, UAE and India.
#Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Dubai Firm selected as a Seedcamp Finalist Seedcamp, an initiative to support Europe’s entrepreneurs, has hand picked Content Syndicate from over 260 companies across 40 countries to be part of Seedcamp Week in London.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: September 2nd, 2007
Seedcamp, the brainchild of Saul Klein, an entrepreneur and venture partner at Index Ventures, is an initiative focused on igniting the next generation of great technology entrepreneurs. Seedcamp will provide support, guidance and valuable contacts to young entrepreneurs from around the world to help them start and build global businesses. Content Syndicate, based in Dubai, UAE is the only Middle East based firm to be selected in this high-profile initiative.
According to Saul Klein, founder of Seedcamp, “The aim of Seedcamp is to reduce the time it takes start ups to make and develop critical relationships and establish an unrivalled foundation on which the business can be built. With more than 50 mentors who are successful entrepreneurs, legal and HR experts, corporates, venture capitalists, recruiters, marketing gurus, accountants, and product experts - Seedcamp is a great launch pad for young companies like Content Syndicate.”
Speaking on the successful selection, Maddy Reddy, 29, Founder & CEO of Content Syndicate said, "It is a great opportunity for us to showcase our unique content platform to the investor panel and business community at Seedcamp. It also proves that with a solid technology that addresses a serious business need, you can stand-out.”
Currently Content Syndicate’s innovative Words on Demand® platform helps content providers and buyers from across the world to commission, distribute, buy and sell content that’s exclusive, customised and personalised for their unique requirements in 218 languages.
The Seedcamp initiative received an overwhelming response from 260 companies from 40 countries around the world from Finland, Russia, Austria, Cyprus, Romania, UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Singapore, Turkey, Spain, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Croatia, Uruguay, Malaysia, Hungary, Serbia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Ecuador, India, Latvia, Netherlands, Germany, South Africa, Norway, Belgium, China, Argentina, Bulgaria, UK and the US.
From the entire list 20 were drilled down based on business capability, innovation and potential. Content Syndicate has the distinction of being a strongest contender from the Middle East region. After a gruelling and intensive pre-selection process, the judges were impressed with Content Syndicate's unique business model.
Seedcamp is endorsed and backed by leading European investors and entrepreneurs. For more information and a full list of Seedcamp supporters, visit www.seedcamp.com
About Content Syndicate:
Content Syndicate’s innovative Words on Demand® platform helps content providers and buyers to commission, distribute, buy and sell content, that’s exclusive, customised and personalised for their unique requirements. Extending beyond English, Content Syndicate’s click-and-mortar business offers a range of quality content services in more than 218 languages to businesses and individuals.
With the motto ‘content is not a commodity’, Content Syndicate is working on its vision to offer content services across platforms, media and languages. Founded in late 2006 by Maddy Reddy, CS is incorporated as independent entities in the US, UK, UAE and India.
#Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
World’s Largest Online Platform for Content Services Goes Live Content Syndicate’s revolutionary content services platform is now live. Content Providers and Content Buyers from across the globe can now buy, sell, personalise, and commission exclusive, customised and original content in up to 218 languages.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: June 26th, 2007
After working with a diverse slew of publishers, advertising, PR, marketing firms and businesses, Content Syndicate® realised that the communications scenario was fragmented with no single, cohesive destination or resource to go to when businesses needed tailor-made content on a tight budget and time frame.
Content Syndicate decided to streamline and consolidate the process of content buying and selling using an internet-based collaborative model. After 10 months of intensive research, development and pilot testing with select clientele, Contentsyndicate.com is now live through its final test version or beta edition.
peaking about the agenda of this unique venture, Maddy Reddy, 29, Founder & CEO of Content Syndicate said, “We believe content is not a commodity. Just about every business from a publisher to an SMB needs the right words or content on a regular basis to communicate their message across - this effort requires time, money, skill and scale to write all that. Content Syndicate's Words on demand® online platform caters to millions of such content buyers clamouring for customised and exclusive content from a few pages to thousands of pages.”
In the pre-beta phase alone, multi-nationals to small and medium sized businesses across verticals have used Content Syndicate's platform for multi-lingual content work ranging from commissioning brochures, web site content, corporate identity manuals, newsletters, white-papers, case studies, technical writing, editorial services, blog updates, press releases, translation; copywriting; search engine optimisation; case studies; proposals; resumes to publishers for features, news, reports, photographs and interviews.
“The response has been excellent and sustained. Clearly, this highlights the need and market opportunity for a simple and consolidated means for customised content services that can scale up across languages, categories and volume of content,” commented Reddy.
To quantify this, outside its full-time team of 32 employees, during the invitation-only test drive, more than 1000+ content providers ranging from professional copywriters, editors, translators, publishers, designers, bloggers and experienced freelancers have signed up to service over 110 clients.
According to respected industry research and advisory firm Outsell, the content aggregation and syndication business alone is a US$68 billion market, with the overall content industry market expected to rake in an impressive US$458 billion by 2009 achieving 6.4% growth.
With no ads, set-up costs, stifling contracts, subscriptions, retainer fees, long-term contracts, licenses, software to install or technical skills required - Content Syndicate’s simple yet scalable service can handle business writing needs of any kind, 24/7 across languages so clients don’t need to scour for their content requirements.
Furthermore, it handles the entire lifecycle of content – from commissioning to quality control to delivery and payment. All technical and operational issues such as work-flow, hosting, digital rights management, licensing, payments, security, copyrights, marketing, pricing, administration are handled by Content Syndicate at no extra cost.
Compared to other content providers that mass-distribute or syndicate the same content to every customer, CS generates exclusive, customised content services in languages beyond English across a range of categories offering its client’s both cost and competitive advantage.
Commenting on the platform, Mr. Reddy said, “Our launch version sets the ball rolling for our expansion and growth. All across this year, Content Syndicate will roll-out a range of specific content solutions targeted at helping the advertising, publishing, PR, marketing and interactive verticals and businesses. ”
Built from ground-up using open source components and Web 2.0 technology, Content Syndicate’s platform is scalable to handle millions of users, transactions in a secure environment. Content Syndicate is also opening up its application programming interface (APIs) in other words, the core engine of the platform so partners can build specialised services around the CS ecosystem.
About Content Syndicate:
Content Syndicate’s innovative Words on Demand® platform helps businesses commission, distribute, buy and sell content, that’s exclusive, customised and personalised for their unique requirements. Extending beyond English, Content Syndicate’s click-and-mortar business offers a range of quality content services in more than 218 languages to businesses and individuals.
With the motto ‘content is not a commodity’, Content Syndicate is working on its vision to offer content services across platforms, media and languages. CS is incorporated as independent entities in the US, UK, UAE and India.
#Content Syndicate, Words on Demand, its design, logo, moniker are trademarks of Content Syndicate in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
