Dable Raises $12M Series C to Fuel Global Expansion

Content discovery platform Dable, initially established in South Korea five years ago, currently operates across six Asian markets. The company is now focused on accelerating its growth, targeting six additional markets within the region this year, with future plans to extend its reach into Europe and the United States. Dable recently announced the completion of a $12 million Series C funding round, achieving a $90 million valuation, with SV Investment leading the investment. Additional participation came from KB Investment, K2 Investment, and returning investor Kakao Ventures, an affiliate of the prominent South Korean internet company, Kakao Corporation.

Dable, a name derived from combining “data” and “able,” presently supports over 2,500 media organizations in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The company maintains subsidiaries in Taiwan, which generates 70% of its international revenue, and Indonesia.

This Series C funding brings Dable’s total raised capital to $20.5 million. According to co-founder and CEO Chaehyun Lee, the company has historically adopted a measured strategy for international expansion, initially entering one or two markets and allowing operations to stabilize. However, the company intends to leverage the new Series C funding to expedite its expansion efforts, launching services in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, mainland China, Australia, and Turkey before extending into European and American markets.

The company’s stated objective is to become the leading personalized recommendation platform in at least 30 countries by the year 2024. Lee also indicated plans to evolve into a comprehensive media tech company through the introduction of a content management system (CMS) in the coming year.

Dable reports an average annual sales growth exceeding 50% since its inception, reaching $27.5 million in revenue in 2020, a 63% increase from the prior year. The platform currently serves 540 million unique users each month, delivering five billion content recommendations and generating over 100 million clicks. Dable maintains its reported average annual sales growth rate of over 50%, and achieved $27.5 million in sales during 2020, representing a 63% increase year-over-year.

Prior to founding Dable, Lee and three other founding team members gained experience at RecoPick, a recommendation engine developer owned by SK Planet, a subsidiary of SK Telecom. Dable provides media companies with two data-driven, machine learning-based solutions: Dable News, which delivers personalized content recommendations to website visitors, and Dable Native Ad, which utilizes advertising networks such as Google, MSN, and Kakao.

A further offering, karamel.ai, is an ad-targeting solution tailored for e-commerce platforms, also providing personalized product recommendations.

Dable’s primary competitors include Taboola and Outbrain, both based in New York (and having recently abandoned a proposed merger), as well as Tokyo-based Popin, which also serves clients in Japan and Taiwan.

Lee asserts that Dable demonstrates the effectiveness of its products through A/B testing, comparing its recommendation performance against competitors to determine which generates higher clickthrough rates. The company also conducts A/B tests to evaluate the performance of editor-selected articles against those recommended by Dable’s algorithms.

Dable also offers algorithms that provide clients with greater control over the types of personalized content displayed, a key advantage as media organizations navigate the challenges of reduced advertising expenditure resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, Dable’s Related Articles algorithm suggests content based on a visitor’s browsing history, while its Perused Article algorithm assesses visitor interest in articles based on engagement metrics like reading time. Additionally, the platform features an algorithm that showcases the most popular articles segmented by gender and age demographics.