Spines raises $64 million to expand AI-assisted book publishing

Spines, an AI-assisted publishing platform, has raised $64 million in new capital as it seeks to expand its product and enter the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia beyond the United States. The package combines a $29 million Series A-1 equity round with a $35 million non-dilutive growth facility from Twelve.

The Series A-1 was led by Zeev Ventures, with Aleph, NordStar, M-Fund, LionTree and angel investor Dan Senor participating. Aleph had led Spines’ seed round and also took part in its Series A and A-1 financings.

The company reported a $50 million revenue run rate, up 400% year on year. More than 8,000 American authors have used Spines to publish books, and about 400 new authors join the service each month, according to Spines. Fortune reported that those authors account for about 12,000 titles.

Spines uses specialised AI agents alongside in-house publishing professionals to take a manuscript through editing, proofreading, cover design, formatting, translation, audiobook production, distribution, marketing and royalty management. Yehuda Niv, the company’s founder and chief executive, has argued that AI should give authors “superpowers” rather than write books itself; Spines says it publishes books written entirely by humans and uses software to identify AI-generated manuscripts.

The platform says its workflow reduces a conventional publishing process of 12 to 18 months to a few weeks. Authors may also work with human editors, proofreaders, designers and native-language professionals, while the service tracks sales and centralises royalty information across markets and sales channels.

Spines distributes titles through more than 100 channels worldwide, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Baker & Taylor. Its packages cost about $3,000 to $20,000, though most authors select bundles priced from $5,000 to $7,000. The company has increased the authors’ share of net royalties to 80%, from 70%, and currently reports royalties monthly while working toward weekly and eventually real-time reporting.

The new debt facility is intended to fund growth, while the equity financing will support product expansion and a move into the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Spines has offices in Israel and New York and employs roughly 350 people, including about 50 in research and development.

Spines currently supports translations from English into Spanish, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Polish and Hebrew, and aims to support 20 target languages within six months. It also offers synthesised-voice audiobooks, including a tool for authors to create a voice model from a short recording for narration in other languages, and has developed illustration technology designed to keep characters visually consistent in children’s books.

Niv founded Spines in 2021 after his own experience publishing a book led him to conclude that the publishing process was broken. Fortune described the company as a hybrid publisher aimed at writers who cannot secure traditional deals or who want greater control and a larger share of royalties. Oren Zeev, a founding partner of Zeev Ventures and an early investor in Audible, led the latest round.