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§ Private Profile · Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Playbuzz is a company.
Playbuzz has raised $66.0M across 3 funding rounds.
Key people at Playbuzz.
Playbuzz has raised $66.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Playbuzz provides an interactive content platform, empowering publishers, brands, and agencies to create and distribute engaging digital experiences. It offers intuitive tools for authoring formats like quizzes, polls, and lists, supporting comprehensive storytelling and content distribution. The platform serves both editorial and commercial objectives for its global user base.
The company was co-founded in 2012 by Shaul Olmert and Tom Pachys. Their insight recognized the potential of highly shareable, interactive content to capture audience attention and drive engagement. Olmert, leveraging his entrepreneurial background, identified a market need for a platform democratizing playful digital experiences for broad adoption.
Playbuzz serves premium publishers, brands, and marketers, enabling enhanced user interaction with their digital content. Its mission empowers creators to author and distribute compelling content, fostering deeper audience connection. The company’s vision centers on dynamic and engaging online content, ensuring memorable user experiences for audiences worldwide.
Playbuzz has raised $66.0M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $35.0M Series C in September 2017.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2017 | $35M Series C | Viola Growth | Oded Vardi, 83North, Disney, Firstime Ventures, Saban Ventures | Announced |
| Mar 31, 2016 | $15M Venture Round | Barak Pridor | 83North, Disney, Firstime Ventures, Viola Ventures | Announced |
| Mar 19, 2015 | $16M Series B | 83North | Firstime Ventures, Saban Capital Group, Viola Ventures | Announced |
Key people at Playbuzz.
Playbuzz has raised $66.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Playbuzz's investors include Viola Growth, Oded Vardi, 83North, Disney, Firstime Ventures, Saban Ventures, Barak Pridor, Viola Ventures, Saban Capital Group.
Playbuzz, now rebranded as EX.CO, is a publisher video technology platform that empowers media companies with AI-driven tools for video management, monetization, content automation, and recommendations. It builds interactive content solutions like quizzes, polls, galleries, and video experiences, serving publishers (e.g., Nasdaq, News UK, Hearst Newspapers) and brands (e.g., Visa, Red Bull, Netflix) to create engaging, viral content that boosts user interaction and revenue.[1][5] The platform solves the problem of declining engagement with static text by enabling dynamic, shareable formats that drive traffic, leads, and monetization, with strong growth evidenced by $66 million in total funding, Disney backing, and adoption by over 20,000 publishers.[1][5]
Playbuzz was founded in 2012 in Israel by Shaul Olmert (son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert) and Tom Pachys (IDC graduate and co-founder of Whimado), later joined by Shachar Orren as a recognized co-founder in 2021.[1][2][6] Olmert, who started entrepreneurship at age 37 after a corporate career, conceived the idea years earlier as a way to make content "cool and impactful" like mini-games or interactive articles, inspired by his desire to explain his work proudly to his young children.[3] The duo launched the website in December 2013 with a small team in Tel Aviv and New York; early quizzes went viral organically after three months, growing staff to around 40 and proving traction despite initial skepticism.[2][3]
Pivotal moments included a $35 million Series C in September (prior to 2019), led by Viola Group with Disney and Saban Ventures, totaling $66 million raised.[1] In November 2019, Playbuzz rebranded to EX.CO ("the experience company"), shifting from editorial quizzes to a broader SaaS content marketing platform with templates, analytics, and lead gen, while Pachys became CEO and Olmert president.[4][5][7] By 2024, EX.CO became the preferred video platform for the Local Media Consortium, serving 5,000 local outlets.[1]
EX.CO rides the shift from text to interactive video in publishing, capitalizing on mobile-first consumption where engaging formats like quizzes and short videos dominate social sharing and ad revenue.[3] Timing aligns with post-2019 content marketing boom, as businesses mimic publishers amid cookie deprecation and privacy regs, favoring first-party data tools like EX.CO's analytics.[4][5] Market forces—rising video demand (e.g., via LMC's 5,000 outlets) and AI automation—favor it, influencing the ecosystem by helping mid-tier publishers compete with giants through yield-maximizing tech.[1] It democratizes high-engagement content, boosting startup-like innovation in legacy media.
EX.CO is poised to deepen AI-video dominance, potentially expanding into full content ecosystems with generative tools amid 2025's AI media surge. Trends like programmatic video and local news consolidation will amplify growth, evolving its influence from viral quizzes to indispensable publisher infrastructure. As video eclipses text, EX.CO—born from playful content origins—stands to redefine media monetization, tying back to its founding vision of making digital storytelling irresistibly engaging.[3][5]
