Medium, the US-based collaborative publishing start-up, founded by Evan Williams, who is one of the minds behind Twitter and Blogger, has just closed a $25m round of financing, the company confirmed. The company started operating a year ago and has attracted investors such as private equity firm Greylock Partners, Google Ventures, SV Angel’s Ron Conway, Tim O’Reilly, Michael Ovitz, Gary Vaynerchuk, Betaworks, Code Advisors, CAA Ventures and Science and a number of other investors, such as Chris Sacca and Peter Chernin, according to a report by technology and funding news site, Re/code.
The seed funding came from Medium founder Williams’ incubator and investment vehicle, The Obvious Corporation.
Williams is choosing to get outside investment to diversify the investor base, which he believes will be more beneficial for his current and future employees. This would presume that he is hoping to take Medium to the accolades of Twitter over the next few years and make it another IPO hopeful when the markets are welcoming and its follower base has soared. Having already raised $25m at such an early stage of the company’s development, it will be exciting for the technology press to see its contributor and follower numbers jump over the next six months.
Williams said the company plans to use its new capital on general expansion, including moving into larger premises on San Francisco’s Market Street, as well as continued hiring and infrastructure scaling, according to the Re/code news report.
On the company’s Twitter page, @Medium, the profile strapline reads: ‘Everyone’s stories and ideas’. The number of Medium Twitter followers at the time of writing was 404,000. As more budding writers and everyday people hear of the opportunity to share their stories to a global audience, those numbers are expected to soar. Story subjects will remain random as will the writer profiles, which could include your grandmother, a university professor or even your local football coach. The point is, to date, there is no editorial niche per se, just an open platform, pending a few steps including verifying your email address, to contribute to Medium. Editing will more than likely get more brutal as more contributors come on board and there are more editors on deck to actually edit the pieces submitted. Some articles are paid for, but since it is still early days, that could change down the road when a more established revenue model is put in place.