Why Facebook and YouTube co-founders Eduardo Saverin & Jawed Karim Invested $8M In Qwiki?

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim are among the leading investors in an $8-million round of financing for a Silicon Valley start-up Qwiki. Qwiki is a startup that responds to search queries with interactive multimedia presentations rather than links, co-founded by entrepreneur Doug Imbruce and Internet industry pioneer Dr. Louis Monier (founder of AltaVista). The site is currently in invite-only alpha mode. The entire experience is curated and machine generated.

The round was led by several high-profile individual investors, including primary investor Eduardo Saverin (co-founder, Facebook), Jawed Karim (co-founder, YouTube) and Pradeep Sindhu (co-founder, Juniper Networks). Institutional investors included Lerer Media Ventures, Tugboat Ventures and Contour Venture Partners. Saverin and Pejman Nozad will be joining Qwiki’s Board of Directors as observers. The individual investor syndicate was arranged by New York City-based Felix Investments.

“The public’s enthusiasm for Qwiki after our debut at TechCrunch Disrupt demonstrates the incredible opportunity ahead of us,” says CEO Doug Imbruce. “Our new financial partners will help provide the resources, independence and strategic know-how to grow Qwiki to the next level and forever improve the way the world consumes information.”

Eduardo Saverin says, “Qwiki is a revolutionary new platform that will define the future of information consumption globally. I’m particularly excited to support the Qwiki team as their initial product gains momentum. It is always thrilling to be involved in the early stages of disruptive technology.”

“Qwiki is a game changer,” says Jawed Karim. “The team has succeeded in creating an entirely new media format that will drastically improve the web experience.”