New York, NY (PRWEB) November 04, 2013
Zola Books closed a $5.1 million seed round, adding $3.9 million to $1.2 million previously announced. The round includes a variety of authors and prominent individual investors led by Charles Dolan, founder of Cablevision and HBO. The additional funds will be used to grow Zola’s engineering and strategic partnership initiatives.
Zola Books is an independent e-book retailer on a mission to offer digital readers a better experience by integrating the community that produces and helps people find great books. For example, Zola Books partners with independent bookstores nationally; readers may make an "Indie Pledge" to a store that then receives a majority of the profit from their purchases on Zola Books.
Gregory David Roberts (Shantaram), The RZA (The Tao of Wu), and Martin Clark (The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living) joined the round along with existing investors, authors Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife), Chandler Burr (The Emperor of Scent) and Josh Bazell (Beat the Reaper).
Additional angel investors include Bob Kohn, founder of eMusic; Jeff Pulver, an early investor in Twitter and FourSquare; David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding; director Paul Saltzman (Prom Night in Mississippi); Peter Sundman, former chairman and CEO Neuberger Berman Equity Funds; and Radcliff Group, a fund that invests in early-stage startups.
Zola Books offers books from major publishers plus new and backlist e-book titles not available elsewhere. Zola's exclusive titles include five works from Joan Didion, five from John Gregory Dunne, Big Fish by Daniel Wallace, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The New Hunger by Isaac Marion, and The Accidental Victim by James Reston Jr. The Zola exclusive e-books are available to read in the Zola Books iPhone/iPad app, which includes unique social sharing features, or in formats that can be read in other apps or devices.
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About Zola Books
Zola Books' mission is to create an online paradise for book lovers. Zola takes everything readers do in the real world – browse bookstores, read book reviews, visit blogs, follow authors, share reviews and recommendations, and buy all kinds of books – and puts it all in one place. Zola also shares profits with booksellers who recommend books online and off. In addition, Zola offers exclusive e-books from major writers - including The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffengger, The New Hunger by Isaac Marion, and The Accidental Victim by James Reston Jr. For more information, please visit http://www.zolabooks.com and follow @zolabooks.