- WarnerMedia-owned CNN recently announced it has acquired Canopy, a personalized content recommendation engine
WarnerMedia-owned CNN recently announced it has acquired Canopy, which is a 15-person company that has built a personalized content recommendation engine. With Canopy’s technology, CNN is planning to accelerate the development of a project that would connect users to trusted sources. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Launched in 2017, Canopy raised over $4.5 million in funding. The company’s investors include NewView Capital, Tenaya Capital, Matrix Partners, and Pelion Venture Partners.
All 15 of Canopy’s employees will join the news organization and the company will be led by founder and CEO Brian Whitman — who previously worked as Spotify’s principal scientist.
Canopy utilizes human curation, on-device machine learning, and differential privacy to ensure the best discovery experiences while also protecting personal data on users’ devices.
And Canopy’s technology will be used specifically for the development of “NewsCo,” which is the code-name for CNN’s upcoming news platform — which will feature content from the news company along with third-parties.
Key Quotes:
“This acquisition enables us to light up in a single transaction a proven, best-in-class team whose deep knowledge and skill sets would’ve taken many months or even years to assemble. Canopy’s culture of fast-cycle, iterative software and product development will enable us to more rapidly realize our ambitions and deliver against our goals.”
-CNN EVP & Chief Digital Officer Andrew Morse
“There has never been a more crucial time to help people discover trusted sources around topics and issues that matter most to them. We’re incredibly excited to join the team at CNN to build some amazing products for their millions of global users.”
Canopy founder/CEO Brian Whitman
