US-based affiliate marketing platform Skimlinks secured $16m yesterday in a series C round which featured Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, a corporate venturing unit of publisher Bertelsmann.
The round was led by Frog Capital and also included Silicon Valley Bank, Greycroft Partners and Sussex Place Ventures.
Skimlinks has secured $24m in funding to date, including $4.5m from a 2011 series B round that included Bertelsmann. Its other investors are Forum Foundry; the UK-based National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts; Accelerator Group; and angel investors Hiro Maeda and Ryota Matsuzaki.
The company’s platform links online publishers to affiliate retail sites with the aim of increasing revenues. Last year, publishers generated more than $625m in sales for a total of more than 20,000 retailers using Skimlinks.
Skimlinks’ publisher clients include Time, Vox Media, Condé Nast, Gawker Media and Hearst. It will use the series C funding to extend the reach of its platform.