Explica Inc.
| Explica logo | |
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry |
|
| Founded 📆 | May 28, 2016 in Tucson, Arizona[1] |
| Founders 👔 | Viputheshwar Sitaraman |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , Austin, Texas , U.S. |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Members | |
Number of employees | 1 - 10 |
| 🌐 Website | explica |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Explica is an American digital media startup company based out of Austin, TX. Focusing on millennials and Generation Z, the company defines itself as a "visual media/entertainment site"[2] covering sports, entertainment, and technology.
Explica is known for its use of infographics as its primary medium, with the slogan, "Less words, more pictures." The company has a significantly higher proportion of 18- to 34-year-old readers than other news sites; Explica's audience is over 80% millennial, compared to between 40 and 50% for Mic, BuzzFeed, and Upworthy.[3] The site's visual approach has attracted attention from younger readers; Entrepreneur remarked, "If you're trying to get young people to read your content, use visuals."[4]
History
Explica began in July 2014 as a science communication blog, founded by Viputheshwar Sitaraman, then a freshman at the University of Arizona. The blog was called Draw Science[5] and featured weekly infographics on science news. Within a year, it garnered over two million views, was syndicated on Business Insider, and showcased at ARCSCon in Philadelphia and the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings in Germany.
In August 2015, a successful crowdfunding campaign[6] helped transition Draw Science into an infographic consulting business for academic publishers. Following the September launch, Sitaraman quickly secured partnerships with prominent scientific organizations, including PeerJ, the USDA, and Elsevier. The business expanded from specializing in science communication to offering a range of infographic content marketing services.
Funding
In May 2016, the company received funding from Seed Sumo,[7] an Austin-based startup accelerator. During the accelerator period, the company underwent a significant pivot, leading to the launch of Explica. In its first month (July 2016), the site generated nearly half a million native views and another million off-site views.[2]
In October 2016, Draw Science was shut down and integrated under the new Explica Labs brand,[8] focusing the company on its new media site. The following month, the company raised $450,000 in a seed round led by MVII8, an Austin-based private equity firm, at an undisclosed valuation.[9]
Labs
Explica's revenue comes from advertising and content partnerships. The latter services are offered through Explica Labs, which incorporates the former Draw Science team.[8] This division partners with a variety of companies and brands, including Hillary Clinton, American Scientist, and Soylent, through content creation and marketing partnerships.[10]
Reception
Explica's graphics have appeared in Newsweek,[11] Daily Mail,[12] VICE,[13] and Gizmodo.[14] The company has been featured in Forbes,[15] Entrepreneur,[4] Inc.,[10] NPR/Public Media,[16] Times Higher Education,[17] and other publications.
Explica Inc. is a privately held C Corporation in Delaware.
References
- ↑ "UA Graduate Already on the Fast Track". UANews. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Visual News". Explica™. Explica Inc. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ Moses, Lucia (2014-09-11). "How well are millennial news sites reaching their target demo?". Digiday. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sarkhedi, Bhavik (2016-08-01). "This Is What You Need To Know About The News Media Revolution". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ "Draw Science". Internet Archive. Wayback Machine. April 3, 2015. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved 2016-11-01.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
- ↑ "Draw Science: Open Access Infographic Journal". Experiment - Moving Science Forward. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ "Seed Sumo Health & Fitness Fund". Seed Sumo. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "We know visual content". Explica Labs. Explica Inc. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ "MVII8 - Private Venture Capital Firm | Austin, TX". MVII8. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Go Viral Now: Why You Need Infographics". Inc.com. 2016-09-06. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ AM, Zoë Schlanger On 9/22/15 at 9:35 (2015-09-22). "Auras Are Real, and Yours Looks Like Pig-Pen's". Newsweek. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ "Scientists create software that they claim can measure beauty". Mail Online. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ "Your 'Microbial Cloud' Is Like a Floating, Invisible Fingerprint". Motherboard. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ Stone, Maddie. "We're all Surrounded by a Personal Cloud of Bacteria". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ Farrell, John. "Young Entrepreneur Hopes To Improve Science Communication Through Better Graphics". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ "18-Year-Old UA Grad: 'Always Been Trying to Be Ahead'". www.azpm.org. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- ↑ "How science is distilling its message". Times Higher Education (THE). 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
This article "Explica" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
