Alexi is an app that each week offers its members a hand-picked selection of the very best books – all chosen by our curators, who are some of the most creative minds of our time.
For £1.99 a week (less than the cost of a Sunday newspaper or a single cup of coffee), Alexi members will have access to nearly 800 titles a year, which is more than an average person reads in a lifetime.
Traditional mechanisms for book discovery have lost much of their traction; and sales-based algorithms have proven to be inadequate substitutes. Like Mubi for film or Songza for music, Alexi seeks to fill the curation gap for books.
For authors and publishers, Alexi is designed to open up a whole new revenue stream – and an answer to the age-old problem of how to revitalize the back catalogue.
For readers, Alexi will offer a stimulating and enjoyable way to figure out what to read next – as well as an elegant book reader, built within the app itself, on which to read any and all of the books Alexi recommends.
As Alexi expands globally, which we believe our low cost-base will enable us to do at speed, it will reach places no other book platform has before, opening up new markets for authors and new worlds for readers.
Progress to date
Alexi has been in beta testing since July. We’ve been featured in the Guardian and Digital Spy, as well as numerous book blogs, and we’ve had multiple twitter endorsements. We currently have over 800 beta testers whose feedback has helped us to improve features on the current version as well as to prioritise features for version 2.0, which will include the book reader within the app.
“Everyone and their Spotify-playlisting aunt is banging on about ‘curation’ in 2015. Alexi applies the idea to books. ‘Best new Apps’”
The Guardian
Use of funds
Investment at this seed stage will enable us to build version 2.0 and launch our membership offering in early 2016. At the same time we will be ramping up our curatorial panel and building a unique database of intellectual property.