EXCLUSIVE: RSS feeds have become beloved apps for all bloggers. And now it is the Venture capitalists who are falling in love with “real simple syndication.” I have learned exclusively that Technorati has/or is about to close its first round of funding. My sources indicate that it was a mega-round, about $6.5 million at a valuation of around $12 million for the company. Draper Fisher Jurvetson led the round. When I asked David Sifry, he declined to either confirm or deny the news. “I’m sorry, it is our policy not to comment on questions on funding,” he wrote in an email. Next step, a quick email to Steve Jurvetson who confirmed that his fund led the round. “We did lead the first round and I think we are the largest investor,” he wrote. Both parties declined to comment on valuation and total funding received.
This is the second RSS related company to get big VC dollars. In June Newsgator attracted undisclosed amount of funding i from Mobius Venture Capital. “We have been aggressively exploring the universe enabled by the rapid adoption of RSS-based technologies since the beginning of the year,” said Bradley Feld, Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital. I am guessing here but Feedster, and Bloglines could be next in line for funding. Technorati, could use the money, given that it is having some technical issues, normally related to hyper-growth. Congrats to Sifry! Pssh! SocialText got some new moolah as well!
Previously, For VCs, Blogging is the Next New Thing Also on PaidContent, Feedburner gets cash and Pheedo gets fed.
2 trackbacks so far
3:50 AM PT
[...] funded . Όλα! (Το Facebook 25 εκ. $, το Youtube 8 εκ.$, το Digg 8,5 εκ.$, το Technorati 6,5 εκ. $, το Βebo 15 εκ. $, κτλ.) Για τον πολύ απλό λόγο, ότι όλα είχαν [...]
6:19 AM PT
[...] turned into ‘Web 3.0′ and ‘4.0′ era based on who you talk to) and their first round was about $6.5 million. Editor’s note: in 2007 dollars that’s about $57,457. Times were [...]
11 comments so far
3:14 AM PT
Great news for Dave! I hope he spends the $$ wisely and in good health!
4:23 AM PT
Congratulations to Technorati.
9:30 AM PT
Congrats to Sifry and crowd! Now, get back to work and improve performance, usability, and make some money so even more stuff will get funded!
10:39 AM PT
Didn’t Joi Ito take a stake in Technorati a while back?
10:46 AM PT
from what i hear this is new money. there was word that august capital had put some money in the seed rounds as well. not sure but still trying to track down the information about other institutional investors
12:06 PM PT
12M pre- or post-money?
12:09 PM PT
post money i think!
1:37 AM PT
Congrats to Sifry and team. Technorati deserves to be funded well and hope Dave is able to take technorati to greater heights. Truly blog movement requires sich attention from VC’s at this take off juncture.
10:53 AM PT
Hey Dave,
Congratulations on this step! I’m looking forward to working with the next features in Technorati.
Best Wishes,
Joe
Burgiss Group
8:44 AM PT
wow…great for technorati and david, who has always been a really supportive guy … i’m just wondering what drove that kind of valuation. seems, ahem, steep.
8:32 AM PT
I would also congratulate Technorati and I hope this is the beginning of some renewed excitement within the investment community.
I was struck by the previous comment by Max Niederhofer. I;m am not sure whether he was serious or joking. Steep?
Google has achieved well over a billion dollars in revenue in five years and has a market value of $3.6 Billion. Technorati is clearly not Google, but may very well be already on its way to becoming a widely used and significant tool in the social software landscape. And Google has shown them how to make money.
I think the VC’s got a steal of a deal.
Leave a Comment