Qloo recently closed a $4.5 million Series A round of venture funding from investors including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (NYSE: HOT) founder Barry Sternlicht, to support the growth of its cultural recommendation engine, according to a report on TechCrunch.

The report says other investors include Pierre Lagrange of GLG Partners, Adriaan Ligtenberg's AllMobile Fund and a handful of individual angel investors. The new funding brings the company's total capital raised to $7.5 million.

According to the startup's co-founder and CEO Alex Elias, New York City-based Qloo 'combs through proprietary and open source data online to learn about consumers' preferences, and how their tastes correlate across eight major categories: music, film, television, dining, nightlife, fashion, books and travel,' TechCrunch paraphrased.

'Besides helping marketers find the common ground between disparate groups they want to reach, Qloo offers developers an API that can power 'if you like this, try that' features within different apps or websites they've built,' according to the report.

TechCrunch, citing Elias, said 'hotels have used Qloo to provide digital concierge services, e-commerce businesses have used Qloo to get customers to look at new products, and media and entertainment companies have used Qloo to guide choices on location, casting and soundtracks.'