Pulse competitor Taptu sold to Mediafed for mobile ad exposure

Mobile content personalisation app Taptu is selling up to an RSS advertising service that wants to gain a mobile advertising channel.

Mediafed is acquiring the outfit for an undisclosed price to build what it says is a cross-platform service that monetises feeds from over 1,200 publishers.

Launched in 2009 as a way to strip web articles down to their core components for mobile web, Taptu’s current mobile app, launched in 2010, resembles Pulse in that it lets users select from shelves and categories of article summaries, both from listed providers and from social network friends and Google Reader.

Investors include DFJ Esprit and Sofinnova Partners. It is not clear whether they are exiting the company in this sale.

Cambridge, England-based Taptu did not disclose its user base. Google Play says it has been downloaded between 500,000 and a million times on Android so far. Mediafed said Taptu apps would be retained.