Business Insider may be gearing up to raise more funding. Clearly, the company is not ready for acquisition, at least not yet. Reports in the media suggest the business news site already turned down an offer of between $100 and $150 million from AOL last year.
But Business Insider did raise about $5 million in investment last spring. Some of that money came from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s private investment firm Bezos Expeditions. But it also included funding from Institutional Venture Partners, RRE Ventures and angel investor Marc Andreessen. In total, the company has raised $18 million from investors since its founding in 2007. Sources say a future investment may come from the same investors and may be for considerably more, Recode reports.
Business Insider co-founders, Henry Blodget and Kevin Ryan, seem to feel the time is right for raising this more ambitious round of funding and they may be right.
For comparison, Tech news site Mashable recently raised $13 million in outside funding. Mashable sees about 30 million unique visitors a month and reportedly raised its funding on a valuation of more than $50 million. Meanwhile, Business Insider now receives about 20 million unique visitors a month and raised its $5 million in funding last summer on a valuation of $60 million.
Meanwhile, the news site continues to grow.
In 2013, the company more than doubled it’s profits over the previous year bringing in an estimated $20 million in revenue. In 2012, Business Insider generated $10 million in revenue but posted a $3 million loss, Bloomberg reported.
In a post in June, Blodget said the most recent round of funding (the $5 million raised in 2013) was being used for additional investment in editorial and technology at the company.
Those editorial and technology resources have been used with great economy. Last spring, The New Yorker reported that Business Insider had already gained more monthly visitors than CNBC. And only sites owned by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Bloomberg still outdistanced it in terms of online audience.
Image: Business Insider
Aira Bongco
I guess they are just not ready to give up just yet. Sure, that money offered by AOL may seem attractive but I guess the website knows that it can generate even more money if it turned down the offer.
Martin Lindeskog
I check Business Insider now and then. It is good if you have some independent business sources out there. Do you know how Investor’s Business Daily is doing?
ed pierce
It seems like they are in a really tough spot but they are determined to see it through and that is what makes a good company a great one in time.