River Launches with $10.4 Million Funding - Wander Founder's New Venture

River, a new project spearheaded by Wander’s founder Jeremy Fisher, has recently secured $10.4 million in funding led by Founders Fund, alongside investments from .406, BoxGroup, Raised in Space, Josh Kushner, and Scooter Braun.

River aims to redefine how individuals access information online. The application gathers news and content from numerous sources across the internet – including established publishers, Twitter, and various other social media platforms – and then organizes this content by subject matter.

As an illustration, the confirmation proceedings for Honorable Amy Coney Barrett appeared in my River feed today, featuring articles from a diverse range of news outlets. River presents each story with a headline, while also enabling users to access the complete article with a single click. The app also emphasizes video content, offering users additional context without requiring them to navigate away from the platform.

A particularly noteworthy aspect of River is its lack of user accounts or the need to follow others. This means the content each user receives is determined solely by their individual usage patterns, rather than being influenced by their existing social connections. Research from PEW indicates that 55% of adults in the U.S. regularly obtain news from social media. The combination of social networks and news consumption can contribute to the formation of echo chambers and facilitate the rapid spread of inaccurate information.

River delivers content from publishers and the wider web without relying on personal account details, social networks, or previous browsing activity, thereby enabling users to encounter a wider spectrum of viewpoints. As more individuals utilize the platform, its ability to deliver relevant content improves.

Getting started with River is straightforward, involving simply selecting categories of interest, and the application immediately begins providing content.

Instead of focusing on comprehensive user understanding, River prioritizes a deep understanding of the content itself.

“We analyze factors such as the source of the content, whether it originates from a professional journalist or an everyday user, its relationship to any parent organizations, the typical prominence given to the author within their publication, connections to other individuals, and the subjects covered in the text, video, or article,” explained Fisher. “We then assess how all these elements relate to one another.”

Fisher, along with co-founders Lev Brie and Leland Maschmeyer, initially intended to launch River prior to the onset of the pandemic, incorporating various social sharing capabilities. However, as the pandemic unfolded and protests following the death of George Floyd gained global momentum, the team recognized that both content consumption and sharing practices were undergoing significant changes.

This realization prompted the team to reconsider the sharing features within River and ultimately led to the development of a separate, independent application called Overflow.

Overflow allows users to share news content alongside a personal selfie video to other social networks. Overflow features a curated feed of user-generated content, but also allows users to share their videos on platforms like Instagram Stories or TikTok.

Currently, River has no defined plans for monetization, despite receiving over $10 million in funding.

The team consists of 12 individuals, and Fisher states that one-third of the team represents diverse backgrounds, though he refrained from providing a detailed breakdown by gender or ethnicity.

Fisher has been involved in product development for nearly a decade, most prominently through Wander, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2014.

When discussing lessons learned from Wander that are applicable to River, he emphasized the importance of creating a product that complements existing user habits and maintaining simplicity.

“It’s common to begin with a complex product and the belief that ‘more is better’,” Fisher stated. “However, my experience has shown that a product is defined by the quality of its features, not simply their quantity. Adding numerous features can actually diminish the user experience. The goal is to ensure each feature is exceptional.”