Graze, a startup focused on creating and monetizing custom feeds for Bluesky’s social network, has secured new funding. This pre-seed investment of $1 million, led by Betaworks and Salesforce Ventures, supports the development team in providing users with control over their algorithms and social media experiences.
Graze’s web-based software provides tools for creating, customizing, publishing, and managing feeds on Bluesky. Unlike other social networks such as X or Threads by Meta, where users are defaulted to a primary algorithmic feed upon opening the app, Bluesky’s network of approximately 35 million users enables the creation and following of custom feeds. Users can pin these feeds to the app’s navigation and select one as their preferred home feed.
The complexity of feed creation for non-developers prompted Graze to develop software that simplifies the process. Using templates and management tools, users can handle feed moderation, logic, filters, sort order, and the social graph included in the feed.
Currently, Graze supports 4,500 Bluesky feeds created by around 3,000 users. These include top feeds on various topics such as news, gaming, art, politics, sports, and fitness. Graze also powers the news tracking service Sill and feeds in other applications beyond Bluesky.
Graze is now advancing beyond feed management by enabling creators to monetize their feeds through advertising. This method aims to create a more ethical advertising framework compared to current big tech ad systems by allowing advertisers to choose specific feeds for their ads based on the feed’s topic, thereby gaining insight into the potential audience. Feed operators can decide which ads appear, the frequency, and at what cost to advertisers.
This approach gives more control to advertisers, according to Graze’s founders. Unlike traditional advertising environments where social networks determine ad placements, Graze allows advertisers to have a more direct relationship with their audience.
Users on conventional tech platforms cannot opt out of ads, but Graze allows feed operators to decide on ad inclusion and gives users the option to block sponsored content by banning certain hashtags. This setup encourages feed operators to manage ad quantity to prevent users from blocking ads or leaving the feed.
Currently, 200 feeds utilizing Graze are running ads, costing about $1 per 1,000 impressions. Graze retains 30% of ad revenue, which supports hosting, payment processing, and feed management, including non-monetized feeds.
In the future, Graze may consider a revenue-sharing model with Bluesky and other apps based on the AT Protocol (ATProto), including photo and video applications like Skylight, Spark, and Flashes. Graze’s co-founder and CEO, Peat Bakke, expressed interest in developing an ethical revenue-sharing model that benefits all stakeholders, including app developers.
The $1 million pre-seed funding was led by Betaworks and Salesforce Ventures, with contributions from Factorial, Apertu Capital, Skyseed, and angel investors from Mozilla and Protocol Labs. This funding will allow Graze to explore product-market fit.
According to Bakke, while Graze is generating revenue, the current focus is on discovery and enhancing user experience by building relationships in the industry. Alongside CEO Peat Bakke and CTO Devin Gaffney, Graze’s third co-founder, Andrew Lisowski, manages the frontend from San Jose. A small team of part-time employees supports the startup by assisting with coding, communication, documentation, and community management.
