Bookclubz Inc., the Camden, Maine-based company behind the Bookclubs app, has raised $1.07 million in a funding round led by CEO Anna Ford, according to the Business Journal. The company plans to actively raise funds and will not close the round until September, with seven follow-on commitments from previous investors already secured.
Ford started Bookclubz in 2015 after her own book club in Philadelphia struggled with organization and declining attendance. The app, now known as Bookclubs, helps clubs schedule meetings, vote on books, track discussions, and share recipes. Co-founder Ian Campbell, a Harvard and Wharton alumnus, built the first version of the app and serves as chief technology officer. The couple married four years after the company's founding.
The third co-founder, Nancy Brown, is based in Richmond, Va., and is an alumna of the University of Alabama. Bookclubs participated in the Startup Virginia incubator and Lighthouse Labs accelerator, according to the Business Journal.
Ford, an alumna of Harvard Kennedy School and Georgetown University, recalled the challenges that led to the idea: "I became our club's de facto leader... When our club ballooned to twenty members, our email threads got tangled. People were asking, when's the next meeting? What book do we read next?" She noted that logistics grew complicated, leading to less frequent meetings and declining attendance.
Ford joined her first book club in 2005 and started her own, called The Original, in Philadelphia in 2011. After moving to Harvard for graduate study, she started another club, Grad Students Finding Time for Fiction, which included international members and focused on women authors.
Today, Bookclubs supports 8,000 clubs with over 35,000 individual members. Ford runs five book clubs in addition to managing the company. The funding round is expected to close by September, with further investment anticipated.
