LeadStory, an innovative on-demand news streaming platform, has secured $2.75 million in Seed funding to enhance its AI-driven video search functionality and expand its global audience of 10 million.
The funding round was led by Checker Media, founded by former VICE Media Global President Jesse Angelo, with participation from the American Public Media Group’s Horizon Fund and follow-on investments from CP Ventures.
As AI becomes part of daily life, issues such as hallucinations in news delivery pose significant challenges. LeadStory addresses this by substituting unreliable text responses with licensed video content from leading news brands.
The platform partners with major media outlets like CBS, CNBC, Reuters, and Euronews, further establishing its position in the AI-driven news market. LeadStory’s popular FAST channels are available on Samsung TV Plus and VIZIO in North America. Plus, it has been selected by Mercedes-Benz to enhance its in-car video news experience, marking a key step in its automotive expansion.
KEY QUOTES:
“The era of AI-powered search is here – but when it comes to video News, the results from the existing platforms are woeful. LeadStory has solved a critical and growing problem in the ecosystem by quickly getting people accurate answers from trusted sources.”
Jesse Angelo, CEO of Checker Media
“This solves the hallucination problem AI has been unable to fix when it comes to news answers. Delivering the exact point in a broadcast news story to answer a user’s question means the response will always be from fact-checked, verified news sources ensuring users can trust the answer is real and not an AI hallucination”.
Cam Price, CEO and co-founder of LeadStory, a former television journalist
“We’re right at the start of a user-led movement to voice-activated, AI search. When it comes to surfacing video, we’re only getting started on what is possible with AI.”
LeadStory co-founder, former UpGuard software engineer Cheyne Wallace
