Buzzfeed, the social news website that is constantly reminding you just how awesome the 90s were, has gone out and raised a $19.3 million Series D round of financing, it was announced Thursday.
The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from previous investors RRE, Hearst, SoftBank, and Lerer Ventures. In addition, Michael and Kass Lazerow, serial entrepreneurs and co-founders of Buddy Media, joined the round as new investors.
Almost one year ago exactly, Buzzfeed raised $15.5 million from NEA, Lerer Ventures, Hearst Media, Softbank and RRE Ventures. With this latest funding, Buzzfeed has now raised a total of $46.3 million.
The money will be used, Buzzfeed says, to increase its development in mobile, expand to new locations, grow its editoral team, invest in video and other initiatives that the company says will be divulged at a later date.
“We have the senior management, board, and investors we need to build the next great media company: socially native, tech enabled, with massive scale. We are all focused on that big goal and raised this capital to move even faster,” Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed Founder and CEO, said in a statement.
New York City-based Buzzfeed was founded in 2008 by Jonah Peretti, the co-founder of the Huffington Post. Buzzfeed has now surpassed the $37 million raised by the Huffington Post before it was purchased by AOL for $315 million in February 2011.
2012 growth
2012 was the year where social networks finally figured out how to optimize mobile and how to generate real revenue from advertising, and Buzzfeed was no exception, as the company saw increases in both areas.
In December, Buzzfeed passed 40 million unique monthly visitors, with over a third of its traffic coming from mobile. But the real story for Buzzfeed was the advertising. Last year, Buzzfeed's revenue increased by 300%, and the company credits this solely to "content-driven, social advertising."
So how did Buzzfeed increase its revenue so much from one area? By making two key moves in the space in September.
First, on September 13, Buzzfeed acquired Kingfish Labs, a data service that is designed to optimize Facebook advertisements, for an undisclosed amount. Buzzfeed bought the company in order to extend its reach in buying sponsored stories on Facebook.
Then, on September 19, it was announced that the company had hired Jeff Greenspan, a Communication Designer at Facebook, and former Creative Director at BBDO NY, as its first Chief Creative Officer.
Greenspan and his team now work with top brands, including GE, Virgin Mobile USA, Campbell’s, Microsoft, Pepsi, and leading agencies, such as OMD, Digitas, MEC, The Media Kitchen, Mediastorm, and Horizon in order to create branded content that is distributed across the web, through Facebook Sponsored Stories and Promoted Tweets.
Buzzfeed could not be reached for comment.
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Salesforce Buddy Media is the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world's top then global advertisers, empowering them to build and maintain relationships with their consumers in a connections-based world. The Buddy Media social marketing suite helps brands build powerful connections globally with its scalable, secure architecture and data-drive consumer insights from initial point of contact through point of purchase. Buddy Media is headquartered in New York City, with additional offices located in Asia, London and San Francisco.
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Find Buzz: We show you what’s buzzing on the web. Our technology, human editors, and trend spotters help you find your new favorite thing. Get fresh buzz daily on BuzzFeed.com, via RSS, and from our extended network.
Create Buzz: BuzzFeed’s publishing tools and trend detection empower a select group of trend-spotters and buzz-makers. Our new publishing tools are currently in a limited beta. Let us know if you want to know more or are interested in participating.
1. Find Good Things
We use technology and human editors to find the hottest buzz on the web. Each weekday, we publish ten stories that highlight the best stuff emerging from the Internet popularity contest. Find your new favorite thing on BuzzFeed.com, via RSS, and from our extended network.
2. Promote Great Sites
We strive to send as many clicks as possible to the bloggers, journalists, and fans who are creating buzz, driving the conversation, and making the web exciting. And we pay special attention to the quality sites who join our network by displaying the BuzzFeed widget. Are you a blogger or publisher? Join our network now!
3. Web-ify Advertising and PR
We developed a new form of PR and Advertising designed for the new networked world where consumers have the power. Instead of press releases and canned ad copy, we work with partners to amplify the voice of the most interesting bloggers, fans, journalists, and buzz makers. Inquire about BuzzFeed PR and Advertising Services.
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