Flipboard has acquired Graze, a Portland-based startup that builds custom feed tools for Bluesky and lets curators monetize their feeds through contextual, privacy-friendly ads. Graze has sent over 41 billion posts to roughly 12 million people since launching, runs more than 7,000 feeds, and splits ad revenue 70/30 with creators. Flipboard, which already used Graze's tech in its Surf app, plans to expand feed-building tools across all AT Protocol apps, including its own. Terms of the deal were undisclosed; Graze had raised only $1 million and had a two-person team.
Questions this post answers
What is Graze and how does its feed monetization work on Bluesky?
Graze is a feed-building tool for Bluesky's AT Protocol that lets curators create, customize, and publish custom feeds, then monetize them with contextual ads rather than tracking-based targeting. Ad revenue is split 70/30 favoring the feed creator, curators choose which ads run, and since launch Graze has delivered over 41 billion posts to about 12 million people across more than 7,000 feeds, with around 60% of traffic monetized. Curators weighing ad models for open social feeds can follow platform shifts like this one on daily.dev.
Why did Flipboard acquire Graze instead of building its own feed monetization tools?
Flipboard was already using Graze's feed-building technology inside its Surf app and found the two companies were duplicating work while sharing a vision for growing the open social web. Acquiring Graze let Flipboard combine Graze's feed-curation and ad tech with its own existing advertiser relationships, and Graze's team of two saw faster growth with a partner that already had that infrastructure. Terms were undisclosed; Graze had raised just $1 million. Developers tracking consolidation in the open social ecosystem can follow deals like this on daily.dev.