2007 founders alicia navarro joe stepniewski products skimlinks skimwords showcases fashion engine editor tool services in text advertising and marketing website http skimlinks.com skimlinks is a content monetisation platform for online publishers including editorial sites forums bloggers social networks and app developers . based on viglink skimlinks specialises in in text contextual advertising . the company was launched in london in 2007 by australian co founders alicia navarro and joe stepniewski . it has over 80 employees and has raised 24 million in funding as of august 2013 . 1 2 it has offices in london and new york city . 3 on october 17 2013 skimlinks was announced as a member of tech city uk s future fifty programme a government programme that supports fast growing companies with the aim of potentially floating in the london stock exchange . 4 5 in 2014 skimlinks drove 625 million in sales for over 20 000 vendors . 6 2 contents 1 history 1.1 founding 1.2 partnership with pinterest 1.3 investors 1.4 acquisitions 2 products 3 see also 4 references history edit founding edit skimlinks was founded in 2007 by co founders alicia navarro and joe stepniewski as a result of a pivot away from the social recommendation tool skimbit.com . 7 it is notable as one of the first technology companies headquartered in what is now known as the silicon roundabout area in london . 8 alicia navarro created skimbit.com in 2006 in australia 9 but quickly moved to london to promote her site as she felt it was a much more supportive environment for entrepreneurs . 8 skimbit was relatively successful and quickly evolved into a white label social shopping service . 10 in november 2008 joe stepniewski was brought on as co founder and together they realised that both users and investors weren t interested in their end product but in the behind the scenes technology they were using to monetise their site through affiliate marketing . 10 as a result they pivoted the company into what it is today a stand alone commercial platform to help other businesses monetize their editorial and user generated content . 1 alicia navarro has been featured in a number of prominent publications highlighting her role as one of the few female ceos in the ad tech world . 11 she was also recently announced as the winner of the entrepreneur of the year award during the 2014 edition of the fdm everywoman in technology awards . 12 partnership with pinterest edit in february 2012 ll social an online marketing blog broke the news that pinterest was using skimlinks to monetise content posted by its users . 13 commercial links included in pins were being affiliated via skimlinks . although the partnership had been ongoing for 2 years 14 pinterest had just recently grown exponentially in popularity and the news was badly received . 15 most of the backlash centered on the company s failure to disclose its monetisation practices rather than its decision to monetise users content . 16 though it was claimed that the revelations prompted pinterest to drop its affiliation with skimlinks 16 pinterest s ceo ben silbermann clarified that they had actually been using skimlinks as a test while they explored various monetisation solutions and had stopped using the service a week before the news broke . 17 investors edit funds have been raised from investors including the accelerator group sussex place ventures nesta venrex bdmi and greycroft with advisory board members such as gokul rajaram formerly head of product for google adsense and facebook ads and oren michels ceo of mashery . 3 18 19 20 in early 2015 skimlinks brought investors from frog capital on board as part of their series c funding round bringing their total funds raised to 24 million . 2 6 acquisitions edit skimlinks acquired new york based competitor atma links in 2011 to power its skimwords technology . 11 21 22 it then acquired invisiblehand a significant player in real time e commerce and product pricing in 2013 . 23 24 products edit through relationships with various affiliate networks like commission junction affilinet and linkshare skimlinks aggregates over 17 500 merchant programmes which are available to publishers who join the service . 8 to use skimlinks prospective users need to apply . once approved publishers will receive a custom javascript snippet to be installed in the footer of their site s . the snippet will then automatically affiliate applicable urls in their content . 18 20 clarification needed by using skimlinks publishers can earn money via commissions on sales from product links and references in their content to merchants in the skimlinks network . skimlinks is used by notable online publishers like hearst digital wordpress telegraph media and future publishing uk . 22 the company has released a variety of tools to which users have access in order to monetise their content . 8 the main ones as shown on the company s website are as follows skimlinks the company s first product . released in 2008 it affiliates existing unaffiliated links on a user s site by adding a tracking tag on click . 25 26 skimwords the second product in the skimlinks suite . it went live in 2010 and uses natural language processing technology to link specific phrases like product references and brand names to relevant online retailers . 25 27 the showcases they were released in may 2013 and are content aware visual product displays that rely on technology similar to skimwords in order to generate geo targeted relevant product suggestions . 28 skimlinks editor the company s newest product . a google chrome extension it allows users to know what merchants are in the skimlinks network and how much they pay for referrals . 29 it also has a price comparison element allowing users to see alternative purchasing options for the product they are browsing . lastly the editor lets users shorten and monetise urls straight from their browser . 30 this makes it possible to share monetisable links on sites where skimlinks isn t live . skimlinks also offers a series of extras like the url shortening of regular links into monetisable links and skimrss which allows users to affiliate links in their rss feeds . see also edit viglink outbrain taboola zemanta references edit a b pitts beth 1 august 2013 . alicia navarro founder skimlinks trust your gut over your data . the next women . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b c rogers stewart 4 february 2015 . skimlinks raise 16 million to bring comtent to the masses . venturebeat . retrieved 10 july 2015 . a b butcher mike 22 april 2013 . skimlinks raises growth funding led by greycroft partners opens japanese site . techcrunch . retrieved 23 october 2013 . ranger steve 17 october 2013 . are these 25 companies the next wave of tech superstars . zdnet . retrieved 23 october 2013 . shead sam 17 october 2013 . tech city uk chooses first high growth start ups for future fifty programme . tech world . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b ha anthony 4 february 2015 . affiliate linking service skimlinks raises 16m more . techcrunch . retrieved 10 july 2015 . kiss jemima 12 december 2008 . skimbit refocuses on affiliate marketing service . the guardian . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b c d anderson elizabeth 26 february 2013 . the great british immigration scandal young gifted foreign and shut out of the uk . management today . retrieved 23 october 2013 . cummings corey 3 march 2012 . skimlinks helps startups make money focus on other things . techli . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b baker david 12 april 2012 . how to adapt your business model on the fly . wired . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b kiss jemima 7 july 2011 . london s skimlinks acquires us rival atma links . the guardian . retrieved 23 october 2013 . bateman kayleigh 20 march 2014 . fdm everywoman 2014 technology awards winners announced . computer weekly . retrieved 21 march 2014 . davis josh . pinterest is quietly generating revenue by modifying user submitted pins . ll social . retrieved 23 october 2013 . madrigal alexis 17 february 2012 . why pinterest is playing dumb about making money . the atlantic . retrieved 23 october 2013 . mcgee matt 16 february 2012 . pinterest drops skimlinks might try ads ; says copyright issues not a significant issue yet . marketing land . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b cowley malcolm 2 march 2012 . pinterest drops its partnership with skimlinks . are other social channels exploring the affiliate links route . social media today . retrieved 23 october 2013 . davis josh . pinterest adds disclosure about how they might make money . conversation with pinterest ceo . ll social . retrieved 28 february 2014 . a b butcher mike 23 february 2009 . skimlinks secures first round investment . techcrunch . retrieved 23 october 2013 . andrews robert 11 november 2011 . skimlinks takes 4.5 million bertelsmann investment for affiliate links . paidcontent . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b skimlinks backed for 900 000 . startups . 18 december 2009 . retrieved 23 october 2013 . kincaid jason 6 october 2011 . skimlinks harnesses atma links acquisition to power skimwords 2.0 . techcrunch . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b bryant martin 7 july 2011 . skimlinks acquires new york s atma links for even smarter affiliate links . the next web . retrieved 23 october 2013 . butcher mike 9 august 2013 . skimlinks acquires invisiblehand product and team forward gains stake . techcrunch . retrieved 23 october 2013 . skimlinks buys invisiblehand to add product matching and pricing intelligence to its toolset . the next web . retrieved 23 october 2013 . a b grant rebecca 22 april 2013 . skimlinks helps publishers nail affiliate marketing no wooing required . venturebeat . retrieved 24 october 2013 . butcher mike 8 february 2012 . skimlinks is the real story behind pinterest s success . techcrunch . retrieved 24 october 2013 . the content economy the answer to brand publisher and consumer co existence . marketing week . 29 october 2013 . retrieved 24 october 2013 . butcher mike 2 may 2013 . in the wake of funding skimlinks launches new products to face off opposition . techcrunch . retrieved 23 october 2013 . woods ben 2013 11 22 . skimlinks editor is a simple chrome extension for quickly viewing online retailers referral rates . the next web . retrieved 3 march 2014 . skimlinks editor . skimlinks . retrieved 3 march 2014 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title skimlinks & oldid 740408626 categories marketinginternet companies of the united kingdominternet advertising services and affiliate networkshidden categories wikipedia articles needing clarification from november 2014 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity 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