Nick D’Aloisio, a 17-year-old British teen has become an instant millionaire after selling his popular news-reading app Summly to Yahoo Inc. for close to $30 million.
The 17-year-old Summly founder comes from Wimbledon, South London. D’Aloisio, who taught himself to write software at age 12, built the free iPhone app Summly in his London bedroom in 2011. He was just 15 years old.
In a note on the Summly blog, Mr D’Aloisio wrote on Monday: “When I founded Summly at 15, I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly.[more…]
“I’d personally like to thank Li Ka-Shing and Horizons Ventures for having the foresight to back a teenager pursuing his dream. Also to our investors, advisers and of course the fantastic team for believing in the potential of Summly.
“Without you all, this never would have been possible. I’d also like to thank my family, friends and school for supporting me.”
Summly works by condensing content so readers can scroll through more information more quickly — useful for the small screens of smartphones. D’Aloisio said he was the majority owner of Summly and would now invest the money from the sale, though his age imposes legal limits for now on his access to it.
The app itself will now close, but its features will be used in mobile products at Yahoo, where Mr D’Aloisio has been given a job. Before it was pulled from the app store Monday after the announcement of the Yahoo deal, D’Aloisio’s app Summly had been downloaded nearly 1 million times. It had deals with 250 online publishers, including News Corp., and 10 employees in London. Not bad for a high school student.
“To me, Yahoo is the best company to be joining right now because it’s one of these classic Internet companies,” D’Aloisio said in an interview. “With new leadership from Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has a strong focus on mobile and product, and that’s the perfect fit for Summly.
“Technology has really been the driver behind this whole deal,” D’Aloisio said. “I can’t wait to see how it plays out at Yahoo.”
D’Aloisio is just one of a number of under-21 entrepreneurs who have made millions at a very young age.
Read more:
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1200680/british-teen-sells-news-app-yahoo-30-million
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21924243
