Audiobook platform xigxag secures £500k equity investment and plans 17 hires

Audiobook platform xigxag has secured a £500,000 equity investment from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF) as part of a larger £1m funding round. 

The funding will enable the company to expand the capacity of its development team and broaden its marketing channels with the recruitment of 17 team members over the next three years. 

This funding round was led by the FSE Group, the appointed fund manager for CIOSIF, and includes a number of private angel investors and a successful crowdfunding campaign on the Seedrs platform. 

The listen-and-read platform enables users to listen to a book being read by the author and then switch to reading it on their device, picking up the story in the same place and with the added features of being able to see illustrations, search in the text, look up words, take notes and share quotes.  

Customers have access to more than 40,000 titles from 15 publishers, including Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan and Bonnier Books UK on the xigxag app. There are more in the pipeline and plans for a US expansion. 

Kelli Fairbrother, c.e.o., said: “Xigxag is riding a massive global audio trend to power an exciting new listen-and-read experience in a space where digital books haven’t really been innovated in decades. Our revolutionary app makes reading more flexible, engaging and accessible, while also providing a far more sustainable alternative to physical book publishing and distribution. Being an eco-conscious company is something we are incredibly proud of and we are delighted to be one of the many Cornish businesses that are facilitating the change to a greener lifestyle.” 

Meg Salt, investment manager at the FSE Group, added: “Xigxag is in an excellent position within a vibrant sector. Their product is easily scalable and presents real scope for accelerated growth in the near future. We were impressed by the team driving the company forward. Management is made up of highly experienced individuals supported by industry-leading advisers who have immense collective knowledge. The business is committed to building the most engaging digital reading app on the market, with the potential to challenge the dominance of physical formats in the £100bn book publishing industry. We look forward to the next chapter of their exciting journey.”