Featured

What Featured does

Featured is a UK-based company headquartered in Lincoln, originally operating as a marketing agency supporting startup businesses with investment, marketing, and business support services. Founded in 2018, the company has a small operational footprint of 1-10 employees. Its strategic direction shifted materially in 2025 when Featured acquired Connectively, a journalist request platform that had been discontinued in 2024, and relaunched the service in 2026 under the Connectively brand.

The Connectively platform is the company's core product and represents a pivot toward a two-sided marketplace model. It connects subject-matter experts with publishers and journalists seeking expert-led content, with reported operational throughput of one expert-to-publisher connection every six seconds. The platform has surpassed 100,000 users and serves 2,500 publishers, with a self-serve onboarding model accessible globally via a web interface. The underlying matching technology is not publicly disclosed, and there is no indication of AI-driven matching, proprietary algorithms, or third-party platform dependencies.

The company's revenue model is structured as a marketplace commission, though specific take rates, pricing tiers, and contract structures are not publicly disclosed. Customer segments are horizontal, targeting publishers, media outlets, and journalists requiring subject-matter expertise for content creation. No specific publisher logos, revenue figures, funding rounds, or investor details are available, limiting visibility into commercial traction. The strategic combination of a small agency team with a revived marketplace platform suggests Featured is attempting to scale platform-mediated revenue while retaining its original agency services as a complementary offering.

Name

Featured

Website

https://featured.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Featured is a UK-based company that operates Connectively, a two-sided marketplace platform connecting subject-matter experts with publishers seeking expert-led content. Founded in 2018, it serves 2,500 publishers and over 100,000 users globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Expert Marketplace Platform

NAICS

Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (516210), Periodical Publishers (513120), Media Buying Agencies (541830)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Community-Integrated Publishing Platforms (MPACAIAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

News & Content Aggregation Portals (BPAMAAAI), Online Article & Blog Publishing Platforms (MPAJAMAF)

Keywords

• Expert marketplace
• Content sourcing
• Journalist network
• Media relations
• Expert matching

Headquarters

HQ city

Lincoln

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Platform marketplace revenue: Connectively operates as a journalist request platform connecting subject-matter experts with publishers. Revenue is generated through the platform's matching mechanism between experts and content-seeking publishers. Specific monetization mechanics are not detailed in available sources.

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

Featured operates Connectively, a journalist request platform connecting subject-matter experts with publishers seeking expert-led content. The platform facilitates expert-to-publisher connections on demand and serves a network of 2,500 publishers against a user base of more than 100,000. Acquired in 2025 and revived in 2026, Connectively is positioned as a core offering within Featured's portfolio.

Product overview

Featured operates as a platform connecting subject-matter experts with publishers. Following its 2025 acquisition of Connectively—a journalist request platform originally discontinued in 2024—Featured revived the service in 2026, positioning it as a core product within its portfolio. The Connectively platform serves 2,500 publishers seeking expert-led content.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Connectively Connectively is a journalist request platform connecting subject-matter experts with publishers seeking expert-led content. It enables publishers to source expert voices for articles and features, and it enables experts to be discovered for media opportunities, with matches made continuously across a network of more than 100,000 users.

Quantifiable outcome

• Platform surpassed 100,000 users
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• ConnectivelycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Featured acquired Connectively in 2025 after it was discontinued in 2024. Featured migrated Connectively's existing operations to the Connectively brand and revived the journalist request platform in 2026. This acquisition represents a core strategic move to expand Featured's platform ecosystem and user base to 100,000+ users and serve 2,500 publishers.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• HARO (Help a Reporter Out): The original journalist request platform connecting reporters with expert sources via daily emails. Direct competitor to Connectively, serving the same expert-to-publisher matching use case at much larger scale; now owned by Cision.
• Qwoted: An online platform connecting journalists with vetted subject-matter experts in real time. Closest direct competitor to Connectively, with a similar self-serve, two-sided marketplace model targeting publishers and PR professionals.
• ProfNet (PR Newswire / Cision): Long-standing expert-source matching service from PR Newswire that connects journalists with industry experts. Operates in the exact same journalist–expert matchmaking category as Connectively, with deep publisher relationships and an established member base.
• SourceBottle: A journalist request platform operating primarily in Australia and the UK that matches experts with media opportunities. Comparable two-sided marketplace for expert-sourcing with overlapping customer segments to Connectively's publishers.

Emerging players

• JustReachOut: A PR outreach platform combining media database access with expert/pitch tools for startups and small businesses. Partial overlap with Connectively's expert-sourcing use case, often used by similar bootstrapped founder/consultant buyers.
• Prowly: PR platform for SMEs offering a journalist-request style CRM and media database. Competes with Connectively for startup PR budgets while serving a similar customer base of publishers seeking sources.
• Terkel: Expert-source contribution platform that connects journalists with vetted contributors on background and on the record. Partial overlap with Connectively's expert-sourcing value proposition for news and trade publishers.

Broad incumbents

• Cision: Global PR, earned media, and communications-tech incumbent owning HARO, PR Newswire, and ProfNet. Operates across a much broader portfolio but competes directly with Connectively on the expert-matching sub-vertical.
• Meltwater: Global media-intelligence and PR software company offering journalist outreach, monitoring, and influencer tools. Comparable broad incumbent with overlapping publisher/expert workflow functionality to Connectively.

Others

• Featured.com (US startup marketplace): US-based startup directory and feature-pr marketplace for founders. Despite name overlap, categorically adjacent: operates as a startup marketing tool rather than an expert-to-publisher matching platform, included for naming-collision awareness.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/featured_hq

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Featured