BookBub Snags $7M for Discounted Book Tool

[Corrected 5/19/15, 1:20 pm. See below]
BookBub, an online service that helps users find new e-books for free or at a discounted rate, has received $7 million in debt and equity financing.

The Cambridge, MA-based company plans to use the funding to continue its expansion, which has already brought it 5 million members since its launch in 2012. BookBub has gone international, too, offering its service in the U.K., India, and Canada. [This paragraph was corrected to reflect the locations BookBub offers its service.]

The company plans to make new hires to add to its existing team of more than 40. The financing was provided by the same investors that gave the company $3.8 million last year; they include NextView Ventures, Founder Collective, Avalon Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta. [Updated to reflect total current employees.]

BookBub charges a fee for listing a book on its website; the fee increases depending on the popularity of the genre and how much a publisher wants to charge for the book. Mystery, the most popular genre, averages about 35,800 free downloads or 3,000 sales for discounted books, according to the company’s website.

Author: David Holley

David is the national correspondent at Xconomy. He has spent most of his career covering business of every kind, from breweries in Oregon to investment banks in New York. A native of the Pacific Northwest, David started his career reporting at weekly and daily newspapers, covering murder trials, city council meetings, the expanding startup tech industry in the region, and everything between. He left the West Coast to pursue business journalism in New York, first writing about biotech and then private equity at The Deal. After a stint at Bloomberg News writing about high-yield bonds and leveraged loans, David relocated from New York to Austin, TX. He graduated from Portland State University.