Confirmed: Federated Media Received $50 Million Third Round; Interview With Battelle
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
As has been widely expected, Federated Media, the online blog advertising network, has announced that it has received a $50 million minority investment from late stage investors Oak Investment Partners. Oak was the only investor in the round, contrary to previous reports. The company, founded in 2005 and based in Sausalito, CA, says it has about 150 sites in its network, and became profitable in Q3 of 2007. No official word on company's valuation, but previous stories pegged it at $200 million pre-money. Also, the company is reported to have about $25 million in 2007 revenue, and expects around $60 million this year. Previously, the company had raised $7 million in two rounds, from JP Morgan, Omidyar Network, NYT and various individuals.
I spoke to John Battelle, the founder and president of the company, earlier today.
The rationale behind this big raise: "We want to increase in a big way the two things we do for our partners: the publishers, and marketers/advertisers. That isn't just one big thing we can do..there is a wide range of things we can do because of the range of folks we works with. We have good plans for putting this oney to work [Ed: though he did not disclose the specific uses, due to competitive reasons]."
More to come
By Rafat Ali