LOS ALTOS, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 19, 2012) - GENWI (www.genwi.com), the cloud publishing leader, announced today that FLOODGATE, and the partners of ELEVATION PARTNERS, spearheaded by Mike Maples, Jr. and Roger McNamee respectively, have invested in GENWI's vision and cloud-based mobile content management system, as a game changer in the publishing industry as evidenced by their recent successes with apps for Conde Nast, Times of India, and The Hollywood Reporter.
"We think GENWI has the potential to radically transform digital publishing through HTML5," notes Roger McNamee, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Elevation Partners. "GENWI gives publishers an easy path to deliver their content to mobile devices. Publishers get all of the power of HTML5 and native platforms with none of the programming hassle."
Traditional Publishing Technologies Fail to Deliver on Mobile
Today, most digital publishers leverage their desktop publishing solutions to create PDFs for download onto mobile devices or they use their web publishing system to create mobile websites. Both approaches are not only expensive and inflexible, but also fail to provide an engaging user experience on touch devices. What publishers need is a cloud-based platform, purpose-built for mobile, that helps them deliver both native and HTML5 apps onto both smart phones and tablets with highly engaging and monetizing apps.
"Consumers want engaging content at Twitter-speed. GENWI has the technology and the vision to deliver on that promise and we are excited to see the company play a critical role in the future of content," notes Mike Maples, Jr., Managing Partner at FLOODGATE. "As investors, we want to get in on the next big discovery before it happens and we see that promise in GENWI."
GENWI's Solution is Exactly What Publishers Need to Quickly and Easily Publish on Mobile
GENWI's platform was purposely built for mobile to help content publishers create engaging mobile apps using a "Cloud-Based mobile Content Management System." By decoupling content and design in the cloud, GENWI has fundamentally altered the way the publishing industry works. Editors can manage content aggregation and creation, build content models, and curate content -- all independent of the design. Designers have the creative freedom and flexibility to create and manage navigation and design apps using HTML5, CSS, and Javascript. GENWI brings the content and design together at runtime -- in the cloud -- and delivers content to any device form factor. Further, both editors and designers can make changes in real-time without forcing the reader to update the app. They can also deliver content in a more targeted way -- either by geography or by usage patterns indicating interest.
"GENWI is honored, not only for the monetary support from Elevation and Floodgate, but for the validation from these industry luminaries whose backing shows that cloud publishing is the way of the future," notes PJ Gurumohan, GENWI's Co-Founder and CEO. "With tablets set to surpass notebook growth by 2016, publishers have an extraordinary opportunity to recapture control of their content and brands away from the context of a web search."
Elevation Partners and Floodgate joined the Series A funding round bringing the total the company has raised to date to $7.1M with other investors being Nexus Venture Partners, Inventus Capital Partners, and Quest Venture Partners.
GENWI Will Host Exclusive NYC Event for Publishers Next Week
On Thursday, September 27th, GENWI will host a live event in New York City entitled, "The Future of Content and Monetization." Roger McNamee from Elevation Partners, Mike Maples Jr. from FLOODGATE, and publishers from Conde Nast, The Hollywood Reporter, UBM, and more, will discuss how mobile is changing the publishing world. To request an invitation, please visit GENWI Events.
About GENWI
GENWI (Generation Wireless) helps content publishers to create engaging mobile apps using a revolutionary cloud-based mobile Content Management System (mCMS). The GENWI mCMS gives publishers a quick and easy way to re-purpose their content to create engaging apps once and then deliver native and HTML5 apps to multiple devices. Today, there are over 1,500 apps powered by GENWI, including those from Conde Nast, The Hollywood Reporter, IndiaTimes, Forbes, and PBS Kids.
Founded in 2010, GENWI is a privately held firm based in Los Altos, CA. For more information, please visit http://genwi.com or follow us on Twitter @genwi.