Audio visual reading app xigxag opens £250k funding round

Audio visual reading app xigxag has publicly opened a £250,000 funding round on the Seeders crowdfunding platform with more than 72% already raised.

This is the second funding round for xigxag which started in 2019 in response to the growth in audiobook consumption. The app is the first to offer users an audiobook and e-book in a single format, which it calls the x-book, indexing human-voiced narration to the corresponding text so customers no longer need to choose between listening and reading, but can instead listen on the go and switch to reading at home, or listen and read at the same time. The app recently hit 9,000 users and is available on Google Play and the App Store.

Kelli Fairbrother (pictured), c.e.o. and and co-founder, said: “I am hugely optimistic about the potential of audio to transform publishing. We co-founded xigxag because we felt totally underserved as consumers. Any time a market is not being served well, it creates an opportunity for someone else to do it better. We believe innovation in channel, messaging and especially format has the potential to attract new audiences to books.”

Xigxag says it offers publishers "straightforward per-title payments" to ensure authors and publishers are paid fairly for their work. The app currently has thousands of titles from the likes of HarperCollins, Hachette and Penguin Random House as well as self-published authors and independent publishers including Faber, Canelo, Boldwood and Chelsea Green. 

The company has been shortlisted as the Futurebook Start-Up of the Year and Fairbrother will be speaking at the Futurebook Conference on a panel discussing innovation in audio formats on 19th November at 12 p.m.