Social news group BuzzFeed raises $19.5 million

Advertisement
By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 4 January 2013 09:59 IST
BuzzFeed, a fast-growing social news website, said Thursday it had raised $19.5 million in a new round of funding from investors to help its expansion.

The latest round was led by the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates and included previous investors RRE, Hearst, SoftBank, and Lerer Ventures.

Michael and Kass Lazerow, co-founders of Buddy Media, joined the round as new investors, a BuzzFeed statement said.

The company said it will use the capital to further mobile development, expand geographically, increase its editorial team, invest in video and other initiatives.

Advertisement

"We have the senior management, board, and investors we need to build the next great media company: socially native, tech enabled, with massive scale," said Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed founder and chief executive.

"We are all focused on that big goal and raised this capital to move even faster," said Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed founder and chief executive.

The company said that in December it passed 40 million unique monthly visitors with growth driven by social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, and mobile accounting for over one third of all traffic.

Advertisement

It said revenue increased more than threefold in 2012, largely from social advertising, and its staff was boosted to 180 employees.

"We are laser-focused on building a media company from the ground up for a world where social is the dominant way people discover and engage with all forms of media," said Jon Steinberg, BuzzFeed president and chief operating officer.

Advertisement

"That means re-imagining and re-inventing editorial, advertising, and publishing technology."

BuzzFeed got its start with a cult following with links to oddball videos and offbeat stories. But last year it hired star political reporter Ben Smith from Politico in a bid to produce more original content and send it viral.

Advertisement

The company also recently hired Jeff Greenspan from Facebook and BBDO as its first chief creative officer.

 

Catch the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2026 hub.

Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. Wheel of Fortune India on OTT: When, Where to Watch Akshay Kumar's Game Show
  2. Ustaad Bhagat Singh OTT Release: When, Where to Watch the Telugu Action Drama
  3. Amazon Great Republic Day Sale 2026: Know the Best Deals on Tablets
  1. Toxic Gas May Have Sparked Life on Earth Through Icy ‘Cobweb’ Crystals
  2. Is Space Sticky? New Study Challenges Standard Dark Energy Theory
  3. Sirai OTT Release: When, Where to Watch the Tamil Courtroom Drama Online
  4. Wheel of Fortune India OTT Release: When, Where to Watch Akshay Kumar-Hosted Global Game Show
  5. NASA Confirms Expedition 74 Will Continue ISS Work After Crew-11 Exit
  6. European Space Agency Hit by Cyberattacks, Hundreds of Gigabytes of Data Stolen by Hackers
  7. Ustaad Bhagat Singh OTT Release: When, Where to Watch Harish Shankar's Telugu Action Drama Film
  8. Bha Bha Ba is Now Streaming: All You Need to Know About This Malayalam Comedy Thriller Film
  9. World’s Biggest Alien Search Enters Final Stage With 100 Mystery Signals
  10. NASA Pulls Out Artemis II Rocket to Launch Pad Ahead of Historic Moon Mission
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2026. All rights reserved.