Mode Media, a US-based lifestyle media company backed by media group Hubert Burda that was at one time valued at $1bn, has shut down, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
Founded in 2004 and originally known as Glam Media, Mode operated a lifestyle media platform and advertising network. It recorded almost $90m in revenue in 2015 and expected to build that to $100m this year, a person familiar with the business, told Recode.
However, despite seeking to expand its original fashion and design video content and the launch of a social news app the company has seemingly run out of money, and content curators have complained on Twitter that they have not been paid.
Mode had raised more than $220m in funding, including $30m from Hubert Burda in May 2015, four months after the companies formed a strategic partnership.
Hubert Burda had also contributed to a $25m round in 2013 together with venture capital firm Keating Capital that valued the company at $1bn. Mode, then still known as Glam, filed for an initial public offering the same year but never floated.
The company had been trying to organise financing or an acquisition since April this year, according to an internal memo.
Other investors in Mode include Mizuho Bank subsidiary Mizuho Capital, GLG Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Walden Venture Capital, Accel Partners, Aeris Capital and Information Capital