Start-up Appboy, which offers a so-called mobile relationship management platform to help app makers better manage users, says its recently introduced in-app news feed can boost app engagement and revenue still further.

The news feed, maintains the firm, has shown consistent results with a 30 per cent click-through rate (CTR). That is a significant improvement, adds Appboy, on the 0.8 per cent CTR typically found on mobile display ads.

In what it claims is an industry first, the start-up says it has built a fully customisable news feed that “lives inside” the app.

The news feed, it adds, enhances existing multi-channel messaging products to help app developers combat low retention rates and increase engagement by 30 per cent.

Appboy has seen 400 per cent growth in the last nine months and now counts more than 1,000 clients, including Text+, Urban Outfitters, GSN, SnipSnap, Bloomberg, and magazines Shape and PopSci.

The New York-based firm recently raised $7.6 million in Series A funding.