Liveblogging service CoverItLive (CiL) has secured $1 million (about $1.2 million Canadian dollars) in a first round of funding. Seed investor Flagstone Capital participated in the round, along with private investor Paul Kedrosky. The Toronto-based startup’s platform lets users post and update content, insert video and images, and set up polls and Q&A sessions in real time. There’s mobile support, including an iPhone viewer; CiL also archives each liveblogging session and provides analytics.
The service is currently free — and some features will remain free — but a “pricing” section on the site details CiL’s possible revenue streams: an enterprise product for large news organizations, which TechCrunch reports will cost between $50 and $500 per month; a white-label model that will license the software to other companies; and of course, an ad-supported version.
President Keith McSpurren also pitches CiL as an educational tool: “We see the software being used more and more in classrooms from grade 4 all the way up to graduate studies … If putting Macs in schools worked for *Apple*, offering CiL Enterprise for free to schools should work for us,” he said, in an email detailing the funding to registered users.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2009\/01\/29\/419-coveritlive-gets-1-million-round-for-liveblogging-tech\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_33447e7b622d58ca1a7ec03007a5da70","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}