17 year-old entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio has sold his news summarising app Summly to Yahoo! in a deal estimated at £19m.
The app, which was recognised as one of the Top 20 Startups of 2012, takes information from news channels and other sites and breaks it down into digestible chunks.
Designed by D’Aloisio at the age of 15 while researching for homework online, Summly received early investment from Hong Kong investor Li Ka-shing and his venture capital firm Horizon Ventures, as well as a number of high profile angel investors including Stephen Fry, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono.
Since its launch in November 2012, Summly’s articles have attracted 90 million users. Following the sale of the company, the app is set to be removed from the App Store today and D’Aloisio’s summarising technology will soon appear in a number of Yahoo! products.
The teenage founder, who is set to work with Yahoo! in the London office by day, while studying for his A-levels in the evenings, said in a statement on the Summly website: “Our vision is to simplify how we get information and we are thrilled to continue this mission with Yahoo!'s global scale and expertise.
“After spending some time on campus, I discovered that Yahoo! has an inspirational goal to make people's daily routines entertaining and meaningful, and mobile will be a central part of that vision. For us, it's the perfect fit.
“When I founded Summly at 15, I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly. I'd personally like to thank Li Ka-Shing and Horizons Ventures for having the foresight to back a teenager pursuing his dream.”
The app, which was recognised as one of the Top 20 Startups of 2012, takes information from news channels and other sites and breaks it down into digestible chunks.
Designed by D’Aloisio at the age of 15 while researching for homework online, Summly received early investment from Hong Kong investor Li Ka-shing and his venture capital firm Horizon Ventures, as well as a number of high profile angel investors including Stephen Fry, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono.
Since its launch in November 2012, Summly’s articles have attracted 90 million users. Following the sale of the company, the app is set to be removed from the App Store today and D’Aloisio’s summarising technology will soon appear in a number of Yahoo! products.
The teenage founder, who is set to work with Yahoo! in the London office by day, while studying for his A-levels in the evenings, said in a statement on the Summly website: “Our vision is to simplify how we get information and we are thrilled to continue this mission with Yahoo!'s global scale and expertise.
“After spending some time on campus, I discovered that Yahoo! has an inspirational goal to make people's daily routines entertaining and meaningful, and mobile will be a central part of that vision. For us, it's the perfect fit.
“When I founded Summly at 15, I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly. I'd personally like to thank Li Ka-Shing and Horizons Ventures for having the foresight to back a teenager pursuing his dream.”
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