Does the world need another newsreader? Yes according to Thomas Heltborg Juul and Sillas Poulsen, the founders of the newly launched media platform Newsio. By using Newsio, the news from local, national and international media is collected and organized for the user based on his/ her interests. Now, the founders have convinced CEO of Saxo Bank, Lars Seier Christensen, to invest in the company.
”In general, I’m very interested in news. I found the description of the product and the development on an early stage meet certain needs that I can recognize from myself. If this applies to me, it will probably also be the case for other people with similar pattern of news consumption”, says Lars Seier Christensen to business.dk.
The amount of the investment is still a secret. However, Lars Seier Christensen reveals that his investment is set at 20 percent of Newsio.
“For Newsio, this is a big investment. Now, we can realize many of the things we would like to. We can’t reach the target yet, but this definitely helps us on our way”, says Thomas Heltborg Juul.
According to Thomas Heltborg Juul and Sillas Poulsen, the business model is based on Google’s mindset where the product is free to begin with. The idea is to eventually to work with traditional media for micro- payments. For a CEO of a bank, micro- payments are of course of interest. But, Lars Seier Christensen doesn’t have any solutions yet. For now, he will contribute with capital, his networks and other ideas for Newsio.
In the upcoming months, Thomas Heltborg Juul and Sillas Poulsen plan to expand internationally. Newsio has an exciting time ahead!
This article is in collaboration with Øresund Startups, originally by Louisa Rabaeus. Øresund Startups is a news site focusing on startups in Copenhagen and the other cities around the Øresund strait; Malmö, Helsingborg and Lund. It was initiated by Karsten Deppert and covers news about startups and events from the startup scene. You can follow them at @Oresundstartups.
