US-based mobile community app provider Amino has received $45m in a series C round featuring GV, the early-stage corporate venturing division of diversified conglomerate Alphabet, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
Time Warner Investments and Hearst Ventures, respective strategic investment arms of mass media company Time Warner and publisher Hearst, also took part in the round, as did Venrock, Union Square Ventures and Goodwater Capital.
Amino operates hundreds of smartphone apps that each connect fans of a specific topic, such as anime, Doctor Who or football. The company also enables any user to create and manage their own community and said more than 2.5 million such groups have now been launched.
Amino has also been adding features such as live voice and video chat and the ability to watch videos with other users. It has not specified what it intends to do with the fresh capital but noted that it wants to put these new features front and centre of its apps following initial testing.
GV previously led a $19.2m series B round in 2016, with commitments from Time Warner Investments, Venrock, Union Square Ventures, Box Group and Goodwater Capital.
GV had already taken part in a $1.7m seed round in 2014 led by Venrock and backed by Union Square, Box Group, SV Angel, Slow Ventures, Launch Angels and assorted angel investors.
The company is unrelated to the eponymous US-based healthcare services platform Amino, which raised $25m in a series C round backed by Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of insurance provider Northwestern Mutual, in April 2017.