For the first time, news website Mashable took on outside investors and raised $13.3 million in its Series funding round led by growth equity company Updata Partners. The round was also participated in by New Market Ventures, Social Starts, Buddy Media co-founders Michael and Kass Lazerow, Iglo Group CEO Elio Leoni Sceti and David Jones, Global CEO of Havas and Founder of One Young World.
Established in 2005, Mashable has since expanded its focus from tech to include entertainment, lifestyle and other news. In a post on the company's website, Mashable Founder Pete Cashmore said the website has over 30 million visitors each month and has workforce of over 120 full-time employees.
According to Cashmore, he started the website when he was still a teenager in rural Scotland. He said Mashable met with other people along the way who helped build the Mashable community to millions and later on to tens of millions of readers.
Cashmore writes, "I'm immensely proud of how much our team has accomplished. Without a dollar of funding, we have built an online publication that delivers news, resources, analysis and feature reporting to a community that has grown to more than 30 million monthly readers. Our team has swelled to more than 120 full-time employees. What's more, we've moved out of our bedrooms and into offices in New York and San Francisco, and soon Los Angeles and London."
According to a CNNMoney report on January 6, 2014, Cashmore thought about selling Mashable. Citing sources, the report said repeated discussions took place between CNN and Mashable about the sale. However, Cashmore and his colleagues decided not to proceed with the sale and started a plan to build the firm. In June last year, Mashable then hired Seth Rogin who was a Vice President of Advertising at The Times to be the company's Chief Revenue Officer. Mashable also engaged the services of former Assistant Managing Editor at The Times Jim Roberts in October to serve as its Chief Content Officer, the report said.
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