Self-publishing platform for books raises $37 million to use AI to ‘build a new Disney’. Details

Inkitt, a San Francisco-based startup that has an eponymous app with which users can self-publish stories, has raised $37 million. The funding's aim, the company says, is to use artificial intelligence to ‘build a new Disney around content.’ Inkitt says it already has 33 million users and 'dozens of bestsellers' The money has been raised via a Series C round, the firm, which was founded in Berlin, told TechCrunch. “The new funding will be used to expand the kind of content it produces: AI to write stories based on your original ideas, and to produce versions of its fiction personalised for specific readers; a move into games and audiobooks; and, more video content adapted from fiction published on its platform – video that is produced with humans today but will, eventually, also be generated using AI,” Inkitt told the website. The longer-term vision is to expand the app's content library, followed by building a ‘multimedia empire’ around it, said Ali Albazaz, Inkitt's CEO and founder. The platform's business has attracted 33 million users and ‘dozens of bestsellers,’ according to CEO Albazaz, who further stated that globally, the platform ranks as the eleventh best-selling publisher.