US-based people-search start-up Ark.com has raised $4.2m in its seed round and the largest amount at such a stage for a graduate of incubator Y Combinator.
Online sales database Salesforce, corporate venturing unit Intel Capital, and China-based media group Tencent were reportedly among Ark’s round, which also included venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, Atlas Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Expansion Venture Capital, Felicis Ventures, Lightbank and Transmedia Capital, and angel investors.
Tencent has been backing Y Combinator companies for the past year, including as the lead investor in Everyme, a social-networking service’s, $1.5m seed round in October.
Tencent has funded about a half dozen start-ups, many from business incubator Y Combinator, including photo-sharing app called Waddle, according to news provider Bloomberg. It previously backed and then bought US-based games developer Riot Games.
Other Everyme investors include media group AOL’s CrunchFund and VC firms Andreessen Horowitz (in which Bloomberg is a limited partner), Greylock Partners and SV Angel.