HuffingtonPost Raises Another $5 Million; Same Investors Including Pittman
By Rafat Ali - Tue 25 Sep 2007 09:46 PM PST
HuffingtonPost, the uber-blog, has quietly raised another $5 million in a second institutional round of funding. The round included all previous investors: Softbank Capital, Greycroft Partners, CEO and co-founder Ken Lerer and Bob Pittman‘s Pilot Group personally (not through his fund, but personal investment). Earlier this evening USAT published a profile of Arianna Huffington, and casually mentioned that the company raised a total of $10 million...that’s what caught my eye and I confirmed through sources the second $5 million round which closed recently.
From the USAT story: the company feels the coming elections is its moment. The staff has grown from three to 43 full-time employees. And while it’s still a politics-driven, anti-war site, HuffPo wants to become an all-purpose digital newspaper, with recent new sections devoted to lifestyles, business, media and entertainment.
Of course, building on top of free, in more ways than one, helps: Co-founder Lerer says it has no plans to begin paying bloggers, the story says. Ever. “That’s not our financial model...We offer them visibility, promotion and distribution with a great company.”
Disclaimers: Greycroft also invested in our company, and we have a small headline syndication deal with HuffPo on its media page
Posted in: Social Media, Nanopublishing, VC+M&A
