Flipboard acquires Graze, the tool for building custom social algorithms
Creators can now build personalized social feeds without coding
1Graze's core functionality
Graze enables creators to build, tune, and monetize personalized social media feeds without writing code. It has delivered over 41 billion posts to 12 million users in 21 months, with heavy usage on Bluesky. The tool democratizes algorithm creation for non-technical users.
2Acquisition details
Flipboard's acquisition of Graze expands its investments in open social web infrastructure. CEO Mike McCue has previously invested in AT Protocol, ActivityPub, and RSS. Graze's two-person team will join Flipboard, though financial terms remain undisclosed.
3Graze's background
Graze raised a $1 million pre-seed round in April 2025 led by Betaworks, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Factorial, Apertu Capital, Skyseed, and angels from Mozilla and Protocol Labs. Two of the three original founders departed last year before the acquisition.
4Technological vision
Co-founder Devin Gaffney described Graze as becoming "the engine under those feeds" while Flipboard's Surf browser serves as the interface. This integration will allow complete personalization of content experiences, shifting control from platforms to creators.
5Algorithm curation
Gaffney argues that in an era where AI clogs legacy platforms, curation is the only sustainable way to manage attention economies. Graze enables users to build better algorithms and monetize them, challenging traditional platform-controlled recommendation systems.
6European context
Article 38 of the EU's Digital Services Act requires large platforms to offer non-profiling recommendation options. Graze goes beyond turning algorithms off by enabling better ones. The open social web movement has strong European roots, exemplified by Germany's Mastodon.
7Industry implications
This acquisition signals a potential shift in algorithm control from platforms to creators. That two people built a feed engine at this scale with $1 million challenges industry cost structures. It represents a new paradigm for social media infrastructure.
8Future outlook
The open social web's future now depends more on business models than protocols. Graze's success will test whether attention curation proves more profitable than traditional harvesting. This model could initiate a new era in content ecosystems with creator-controlled algorithms.