Understanding news is difficult and time consuming

Reading the news today is like opening a book at chapter three: You’re suddenly thrown into the middle of the story, not knowing the characters mentioned or how we even got to this point.

During our research at MIT, it became clear that readers crave more, not less, context, without spending hours trying to discover it. Turning to Google only returns repeat results highlighting the same update published in the past 24 hours, ultimately leading to tab hell as you go back-and-forth attempting different search queries. 

Acciyo: putting news in context

Acciyo uses machine learning to provide readers with automatic context. As you’re reading a news article in Google Chrome, we populate a timeline of articles previously published on the topic you’re currently reading — sort of like the previous “chapters” of a news story.

So even if a story makes headline news today, you can go back in time and uncover when it all started and who has been saying what since. Acciyo makes it easy to be an informed citizen … and make you feel like you've been following along the whole time!

News made simple

From the user’s perspective, we operate as a Google Chrome extension. Acciyo appears on the upper right corner of your screen, and a user simply needs to begin reading a news story. From there, Acciyo uses natural language processing (NLP) to populate an interactive timeline of everything published on the subject, including quick summaries of key people and places to make it easier to understand. 

As readers continue using our platform, their news will soon become tailored to their individual context needs and specifications. 

600K+ article database

Our beta launch on Product Hunt quickly grew to be a Top 5 product of the day. We have surpassed 200+ users and have secured partnerships with Ballotpedia and other content creators. We have a constantly growing database of articles, which counts 600K+ as of today. 

Engaging interested readers

There’s a big disconnect between what publishers provide and what consumers need. In fact, 4 in 10 Americans read stories in-depth more than once a day. Acciyo allows these readers to easily go deeper into topics and find the context they crave without ending up down a rabbit hole of tab hell. 

Freemium subscription

Acciyo currently exists as a free web tool, and will soon evolve into a freemium subscription model. As interest in Acciyo grows, we will offer a variety of different subscription levels for our readers. Each tier will offer different benefits, starting with personalized timelines at $5/mo.

68M U.S. news readers

Our current solution targets the 7M U.S. adult readers who pay for at least one news subscription and read on their desktop. As we learn from these users, we’ll evolve our product features, functionality, and offering for all news readers in the U.S. 

Dominating the desktop

Acciyo is currently the premium desktop extension for personalized news sources offering summarized explanations of people, events, and places. We’ve focused on the desktop because research shows that mobile phone readers are mainly scrollers, while desktop users are more active readers in that they open more tabs while researching. In addition, we’re working on a feature prototype that allows readers to navigate their own news diet, sort of like a spend tracker on your credit card. 

An easier way to navigate your news

With the funds raised, we can focus on executing our 2020 plans and build a roadmap to our ultimate goal of reaching 45M desktop readers by 2023. By then, our full product suite will include contextual recommendation systems and a mobile companion for readers on the go. 

Raised $300K to date

We've raised over $300K to date from Unshackled Ventures, Dorm Room Fund, and Rough Draft Ventures. We've received non-monetary resources and support from a number of prominent organizations. 

Acciyo is a fully female-founded team with roots in media and technology

Anum Hussain, Co-Founder & CEO Recovering journalist turned product marketer Started career at Boston Globe Spent five years from startup to IPO at Boston-based HubSpot; was product and growth marketer who helped launch company's first browser plugin and move into sales market Spent two years at MIT addicted to using technology to improve news experience

Vivian Diep, Co-Founder & CTO Computer science and finance Viral communications department at MIT Media Lab Tackled future of news projects while at Media Lab through lens of data visualization and AI for major media companies such as Bloomberg, Univision, and more Formerly co-founded Deepstream, a startup providing context for news live streams