Mindwork Labs Raises $1.6M From Mark Pearson For Its Publisher Monetization Platform; Acquires Premier Content Links

Mindwork Labs, the startup behind discount website, MyDeals, has raised a new £1 million (~$1.6m) round of funding from serial entrepreneur, Mark Pearson, of MyVoucherCodes/Markco Media fame. Pearson is a previous backer of Mindwork Labs, having already invested £500k, and interestingly, the majority of the additional capital will be used to launch a completely new (slightly stealthy) platform that aims to help publishers grow and monetize their audience.

Specifically, I’m told that Pearson’s investment will enable the company to buy a “relevant single word domain name” for the new project — talks are said to already be underway — along with funding a related marketing push.

To that end, despite only being announced today, the investment has already seen Mindwork Labs acquire marketing outfit, Premier Content Links, a 5 person company founded by 19-year-old Will Roberts. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, though Mindwork Labs’ founder and CEO, Tom Packer, tells me it’s in the “5 figure bracket”.

Packer says that the two companies have been “working closely” since the launch of the MyDeals site. “When we sat down and talked over our future plans it made sense to agree a deal to bring the team into Mindwork Labs”, he says. As part of the deal, Roberts will become Mindwork Labs’ head of marketing, while the acquisition brings Mindwork Labs total head count to 12.

Details on the new publisher monetization platform remain scarce, however, though I’ve learned that it’s targeting publishers of all sizes, and will operate as a Software-as-a-Service (a toolkit of sorts) to provide them with “everything they need to make money online”. It promises to increase user engagement, allowing publishers to “push relevant content to their users in an un-intrusive manner” and generate a “large volume of revenue” using technology that is otherwise expensive to develop in-house. Exactly how it works, Mindworks Labs isn’t saying for now.

Meanwhile, I’m told that the company’s existing business, MyDeals, which launched just 3 months ago, is growing nicely, racking up “more than” 200,000 unique users last month.