This is probably among the largest fundings in this category, and definitely in bubble territory: Netvibes, a personalized homepage/RSS reader service based out of Paris, has received $15 million in first round of funding. The round was led by existing investor Index Ventures and the new investor Accel. It received a seed round earlier this year.
The company’s service has seen rapid early-adopters adoptions, if numbers are to be believed...it says they have five million users. But no way to develop a revenue stream yet. As SiliconBeat says: “Its interface is so clean, it is like Google’s empty homepage. How do you interfere with users who have become accustomed to this? For now, we’re told the company isn’t yet focused on making cash, but is looking mainly to build the best user-experience.” Competitors include everyone from Yahoo, MSN, Google, to smaller players like Pageflakes and others.
But seriously, $15 million?
Staci adds: On user counts—given the number of hit-and-run artists who look at everything and stick with little, I’d rather see an active-user count instead of one based on registrations or downloads. That’s especially important with start-ups.