EDMONTON, AB--(Marketwired - April 07, 2016) - SAM, the online social media search, curation and storytelling platform for the world's top newsrooms, announced today that is has secured seed round financing from The Associated Press and a number of other investors. The investment capital will be used to grow the team and accelerate SAM's rapidly growing customer base.

Social and user generated content (UGC) has quickly become a critical source of content and information for news organizations everywhere and SAM has positioned itself as the "go to" tool for some of the world's top news brands, including AP, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Toronto Star, The Guardian, First Look's Reportedly, Press Association and many others.

"SAM is the clear front-runner in the exploding social newsgathering and curation space," said Jim Kennedy, SVP of Strategy and Enterprise Development for AP. "Our team of social experts here at the AP know the tool landscape well, and their trust in SAM led to our investment. SAM's ability, as a startup, to build a world-class product and power several of the world's largest newsrooms is a sign of even greater things to come."

With the new funding, SAM intends to build out offices in major media centres, starting with London and followed shortly thereafter by New York. The capital will also be used to grow the development team to meet the increasingly diverse needs of SAM's customers worldwide.

"SAM not only provides newsrooms with the tools to find the best social media content from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social networks, but it powers the entire workflow process from curation, to verification, to media clearance to publishing. Having strategic investment from a partner like The Associated Press is extremely validating, humbling and exciting," said James Neufeld, CEO and Founder of SAM. "At SAM, we identify strongly with the AP's values and their vision to create a more informed and empowered news industry, and could not be more thrilled that the AP is backing our long-term vision," added Neufeld.

This financing round comes at an ideal time when news, media and social networks are all doubling down on curation. Traditional media and new media have become one as Twitter curates Moments and secures NFL rights and Facebook launches Signal -- its own tool aimed at journalists -- and hosts presidential debates. With many social networks focusing on their offline strategies and traditional media focusing on their social strategies, there is a synergistic co-dependency between the news media and social media. SAM sits right in the middle of those worlds, powering search, curation and the workflows needed by every storyteller.

"It's all too easy to create flashy tweetwalls or primitive moderation tools," said Neufeld. "It's much more difficult and important to build robust tools that allow storytellers and an entire industry to source and craft stories worth telling," Neufeld continued. "At SAM, we're on a mission to build tools that power entire workflows and to be the central hub for newsgathering and collaborative storytelling. Increasingly our customers tell us they can no longer envision their newsroom without SAM; that is deeply humbling and at the same time exciting as we are still in the early phases of our platform and goals."

About AP

The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP. On the Web: www.ap.org.

About SAM

SAM's online platform powers social media search, curation and storytelling for the world's newsrooms and media companies. Newsrooms powered by SAM find better social content faster, curate and collaborate more efficiently, and publish rich social media driven stories online and on-air. Since launching 2013, the company counts AP, Reuters, FT, WSJ, Guardian, Toronto Star, Reportedly and other blue-chip media companies as clients. For more information, visit www.samdesk.io.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/4/6/11G092249/Images/AP_SAMLogo1_copy-e96c3222541c968097870596a42186ea.jpg