BuzzFeed amasses £30m war chest to become 'pre-eminent' media company
Entertainment website BuzzFeed has amassed a £30m war chest to fund its aspiration to become a ‘preeminent media company’ as the start-up seeks to establish itself as a major player in the news market.
The cash was secured by venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz which made the bold prediction about the firm as it invests in online video, acquisitions and its own in-house incubator for tech start-ups.
Andreesen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon said: “Many of today’s great media companies were built on top of emerging technologies. Examples include Time Inc. which was built on color printing, CBS which was built on radio, and Viacom which was built on cable TV.
“We’re presently in the midst of a major technological shift in which, increasingly, news and entertainment are being distributed on social networks and consumed on mobile devices. We believe BuzzFeed will emerge from this period as a preeminent media company.
“Everything is built for mobile devices from the outset. Internet native formats like lists, tweets, pins, animated GIFs, etc. are treated as equals to older formats like photos, videos, and long form essays. BuzzFeed takes the internet and computer science seriously.”
The deal values BuzzFeed at $850m courtesy of 150m monthly visitors and a healthy profit outlook predicted to generate ‘triple digit millions’ of revenues this year alone.