Pinterest acquires human-powered search engine Jelly

After acquiring Instapaper, Pinterest has acquired Jelly Industries, maker of the question-and-answer app Jelly.

Jelly, founded in 2014 by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Ben Finkel allows users to ask questions and then uses an algorithm - human-powered search engine - to pair them with crowdsourced replies to give answers.

Though the terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, however, as part of the deal, Jelly CEO Stone will join Pinterest as a special advisor to Pinterest co-founder and chief product officer Evan Sharp.

“The Jelly team's approach to an exploratory search powered by a mix of technology and human curation is closely aligned with our own vision," Evan Sharp said in a statement. "The addition of Biz Stone, who’s one of the great product thinkers and creators of our time, will move us closer to our mission of building a product that helps people around the world discover and do what they love.”

Some important details are yet to be clarified by both the companies. Ben wrote in a blog post, “We’re still working out details, so there are unknowns. Will Jelly remain separate, or integrated somehow? Nevertheless, we are incredibly enthusiastic and certain, that this is the best decision for the future of human-powered search and discovery. Jelly plus Pinterest is an exceedingly powerful match. A new adventure begins!”

Jelly experimented with allowing users to search with questions and featured playful visual and sound effects. However, the app never took off among consumers.

On the other hand, Pinterest recently said it has 150 million monthly users. The company has reportedly generated about $100 million in revenue in 2015 and about $300 million last year. The company was also recently valued by investors at $11 billion and has raised $1.3 billion in funding to date from investors such as Goldman Sachs and venture-capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and FirstMark Capital.