The Odyssey Secures $3 Million in New Funding to Fuel Growth

NEW YORK, May 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Odyssey, the millennial-targeted content platform experiencing explosive growth, announced today that it has raised $3 million in new capital, funds that will be used to extend its popular platform from 80 to more than 400 markets to meet the growing demand for its community-driven content.

Traffic to The Odyssey is increasing rapidly, from zero to nearly 10 million unique monthly visitors since launching in June 2014. Having tripled its audience size since January, The Odyssey is one of the fastest-growing media properties, and is on track to be among one of the largest digital media properties in the country.

The Odyssey's success is attributed to two differentiating factors:

• A disruptive content model that overturns the top down editorial model. Content is crowdsourced from millennial influencers in communities across the country, bringing a multitude of perspectives to the audience – an approach that has been validated by high engagement rates, as more than 93 percent of readers arrive to the site via social media.
• MUSE, a proprietary CMS technology that measures article quality and social engagement to create and promote content to the most relevant audience, while efficiently managing content creation, algorithmic and human editing, idea collaboration and sharing.

"We identified a gap and addressed it by revolutionizing the creation, distribution and financial model for content," said founder and CEO Evan Burns. "We've found new ways to drive meaningful conversations around content, and our growth proves that millennials are hungry for high-quality content that brings more perspectives and enables conversations and interactions."

The Odyssey's ability to reach millions of readers in such a granular and impactful way has attracted major brand marketers such as Verizon Wireless, Monster Audio, Mountain Dew and State Farm, plus more than 350 additional advertisers within its 80 local markets.

"Investors and marketers are attracted to The Odyssey because its model offers direct access to millennials. The platform creates high quality content experiences and offers brands the ability to engage, and interact in hyper-relevant ways," said Tim Kopp, investor and board member of The Odyssey. "The investor group has significant experience in scaling businesses and sees tremendous growth potential in this platform."

Notable investors include former C-level executives from ExactTarget (acquired by Salesforce.com for $2.5 billion), including founder and CEO Scott Dorsey, CFO Traci Dolan and CMO Tim Kopp, in addition to other successful entrepreneurs.

About The Odyssey:

The Odyssey is a digital content platform that inverts the traditional editorial model of top-down content creation by crowdsourcing ideas through millennial influencers around the country. The Odyssey is built on MUSE, a proprietary CMS technology that measures article quality and social engagement to create and promote content to the most relevant audience.  For more information, visit: http://theodysseyonline.com.

SOURCE The Odyssey

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http://theodysseyonline.com