CityRock leads with participation from Tribute Technology as well as strategic partnerships with iHeartMedia, Sinclair and Hearst as broadcasters back a new model for delivering real-world, time-sensitive community stories to local audiences

NEW YORK, June 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chptr, the company building the new distribution layer for community stories, today announced it has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by CityRock, with participation from Tribute Technology as well as strategic partnerships with iHeartMedia, Sinclair and Hearst. By bringing together the largest operators across television, radio, and local media at a moment when the industry is actively searching for new models to deliver relevant, community-based information at scale. In a time where algorithm-based news delivery is the default, Chptr aims to restore the reach of people’s most important announcements to America’s most trusted local media platforms, starting with end-of-life memorial content.

Chptr’s proprietary technology enables local, time-sensitive stories to move from origin to distribution in less than 24 hours, reaching audiences across broadcast, digital, and now radio through direct integrations with major media networks. With its Series A funding, Chptr is introducing a subscription-based model that enables SMBs to effectively engage their local communities across local TV, radio and digital channels. Chptr is now live in 132 U.S. television markets, covering the majority of American households, and has already delivered thousands of localized broadcasts across all major metropolitan areas. With iHeartMedia’s partnership, that distribution now extends into radio, creating a multi-platform system that reaches audiences throughout the day, not just during scheduled news cycles.

At the core of Chptr’s platform is a rethinking of how local content is created and distributed. Historically, many forms of community-based information – from memorials to local events to service announcements – have been fragmented, delayed, or inaccessible due to production constraints and limited distribution channels. Chptr transforms those inputs into ready-to-air segments that can be deployed across television, radio, and digital platforms almost immediately, unlocking a category of content that has been largely absent from modern media. Chptr’s approach to AI is intentionally constrained and human-centered: the platform does not generate source content or scrape data, and leverages AI for formatting, production, and distribution, with all content reviewed by humans prior to broadcast.

“Chtpr is solving not just one, but many very important challenges, and our team is honored to invest in this vision,” said Oliver B. Libby, Managing Partner and co-founder of H/L Ventures and CityRock Venture Partners. “Anyone who has lost a loved one knows how frustrating, expensive, distracting, and analogue the process of memorializing our departed family in obituaries, death notices, and digital formats—at a very vulnerable and tragic time for a family. At the same time, the local news—broadcast and print—are all looking for revenue streams and for ways to connect authentically with viewers and readers. Chptr bridges these gaps, updating the memorialization process, and doing so with business sense and with heart.”

The company’s traction to date has come from rebuilding memorial announcements as a content category, working directly with funeral homes as a trusted source of structured, time-sensitive information. That use case has proven both the demand and the scalability of Chptr’s model, serving as a foundation for broader expansion into other forms of local content. As the end-of-life industry’s trusted leader in tech-enabled memorial announcements, Chptr provides an invaluable service to the families and communities of loved ones, while also directly empowering local funeral businesses who offer clients access to Chptr’s technology.

As algorithmic feeds prioritize engagement over relevance, local audiences are increasingly disconnected from the timely, real-world information that directly affects their daily lives – from community events and services to critical life announcements. Generative AI has introduced new risks in sensitive life events, including fabricated obituary details, data scraping, and automated content lacking oversight. Chptr addresses both challenges by rebuilding memorial announcements as a broadcast content category while deploying ethical, human-reviewed AI tools designed specifically for funeral service to create professional-grade memorial videos from family-provided photos and stories. Family data is never sold or repurposed, and local funeral homes remain the authoritative source of service information.

“Memorials are the starting point, not the end state,” said Rehan Choudhry, founder and CEO of Chptr. “What we’ve built is a system for distributing real, human stories that matter in a specific place, at a specific moment in time. Media companies are investing because they see this as the future of local – timely, trusted, and deeply connected to the communities they serve.”

The company’s integration with Tribute Technology, which serves more than 9,000 funeral homes across North America, demonstrates how Chptr can plug into existing local workflows and turn them into immediate distribution pipelines without adding operational burden. The Series A will fund expansion into remaining U.S. markets, deeper integrations across broadcast and audio networks, and the development of additional content categories beyond memorials, including other forms of time-sensitive local information that have historically lacked scalable distribution.

“Radio connects people during defining moments,” said David Ellis, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development, Venture Capital, and Emerging Initiatives of iHeart Media. “By supporting Chptr, we’re ensuring remembrance and celebration reaches communities where they already listen.”

About Chptr
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in New York, Chptr is the community storytelling company that helps funeral homes bring modern memorialization to the families they serve. Through its Broadcast, Social, and Video offerings, Chptr transforms photos and memories into video tributes that reach thousands, helping communities gather, show support, and honor every life properly. Chptr partners with funeral homes and media companies across the United States, coordinating directly with families to keep workflows simple for funeral directors. Learn more at www.chptr.com.

Media Contact:
Jenny Knizner
434-260-1162
[email protected]

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