Image Credit: Podz

Podz provides a personalised audio newsfeed of 60-second podcast highlights, based on your interests and shows you already love.

Podz is a new way to experience podcasts. Curated by machine learning, their infinite playlists play the best parts of your favourite podcasts and those it thinks you’ll love. If you enjoy the 60-second clips you hear, you can quickly tap to play the episode in full or save it for later. Podz can learn what shows you enjoy from your Apple Podcasts subscriptions and the Twitter accounts you follow. Alternatively, you can simply browse through topics and hashtags to find something new. As you continue to use the app, Podz’s suggestions get smarter.

With podcasts typically ranging from 30-60 minutes long, discovering new shows can be difficult, with the majority of listeners finding shows from word-of-mouth or untailored chart lists. Podz hopes to solve this issue and perhaps shine a light on those undiscovered gems. Think of Podz as Netflix’s homepage, where you can easily browse through clips of shows they think you’ll love.

Trained on 100,000 hours of audio and helped by journalists and audio editors, Podz uses machine learning models to find and clip the most engaging part of podcasts.

The startup was launched at the end of last year, with backing from M13, Katie Couric, Paris Hilton, Canaan Partners, Charge Ventures, Humbition and Mara Schiavocampo, raising $2.5 million in pre-seed funding.

Even though podcasts have gained a lot of momentum — there are 100 million folks in the U.S. who listen to podcasts — we still haven’t seen that crossover behavior, where audio becomes a part of everyday lives. We think that’s because the experience of discovering and consuming podcasts is ancient. It literally feels like browsing the web in 1997.

Doug Imbruce, CEO, Podz to TechCrunch

Podz also has tools for podcasters, with an automated process, allowing creators to easily promote short clips on social media. Imbruce promises Podz will add more creative and monetization tools over time. “We are really hopeful that we can both increase the amount of audio being created by 10x and increase the monetization of audio by 100x.”

Download Podz on the App Store here.