Pocket raises $5M to bookmark content and redesign “boring old lists”

Pocket, the bookmarking app for web, Android, and iOs formerly known as “Read it Later”, has raised a $5 million second funding round led by Foundation Capital with participation from Baseline Ventures and Google Ventures.

Pocket’s founder, Nate Weiner, told me that millions of people are emailing and ‘favoriting’ content to read later. He views this population — myself included — as the startup’s primary competition, as these users don’t realize there’s a better way. Pocket makes it easy for anyone to bookmark content, including tweets, videos and news articles, without having to send an email or open dozens of browser tabs.

The company brings us the funding news shortly after announcing its redesign and makeover this spring, when Weiner told VentureBeat that people were using the ‘Read it Later’ button to bookmark recipes and things to buy. The first iteration of the service, he explained, was just a “boring old list” that did not reflect the web, “a bright, colorful, imagery-filled place.”

Already, a million people are using the re-branded Pocket to save content on a mobile device, and take in with them in their pocket to read later. It is integrated in more than 350 of the most popular free apps on Android and iOs, including Flipboard, Twitter, and Zite.

Eventually, the startup hopes to design a new experience by gleaning insights from the data it is collecting about content discovery and user behavior.”The type of content that you view at night on your iPad is ultimately very different from what you view on your phone during a commute,” Weiner explained. “We think we can do a lot with that knowledge.”

Adoption has skyrocketed since the founders made the decision not to integrate with paid mobile apps several months ago. The funding will be used to continue the app’s redesign, expand to more devices and platforms, and double down on relationships with content partners.

“We wanted to make an experience that lets content visually shine,” Weiner said.