Exclusive: Publisher Spines raises $64 million in funding for AI-driven book publishing platform

Spines, a hybrid publisher with offices in Israel and New York, has raised $64 million: a $29 million Series A-1 equity round led by Zeev Ventures and a $35 million non-dilutive growth facility from Twelve. The company declined to disclose its valuation.

Spines says AI agents edit, design covers, translate, produce audiobooks and market books for authors without a traditional publishing deal. CEO Yehuda Niv says the company has reached a $50 million annual revenue run rate, up 400% year over year, and has published more than 8,000 authors with some 12,000 titles.

Most of the evidence comes from the company's own CEO, who says about 400 new writers sign up each month. Niv says human authors write every book, but the article notes that AI-designed covers may raise copyright issues, since U.S. courts and the Copyright Office have held that images made entirely by AI can't be copyrighted.

Authors upload a finished manuscript and specialized agents handle editing, proofreading, formatting, cover design, metadata, ebook and print-on-demand files, and distribution to more than 100 channels including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Baker & Taylor. Authors can also make audiobooks with a synthetic narrator or a clone of their own voice, and translate the book and audiobook.

Niv founded Spines in 2021 after building Niv Publishing, which he says became Israel's largest publishing house at about 1,200 titles a year. He argues the cover agent beats typical freelancers because it reads the manuscript and designs to metrics for retail categories.

Spines says it publishes only books written 100% by humans and uses software to try to weed out AI-generated manuscripts. It licenses its image-generation tools and passes a license to authors, which Niv says is often broader than what human illustrators grant.

Niv plans to use the debt to fund growth and the equity to build the product and expand into the U.K., Canada and Australia, aiming for 200% to 300% annual growth.