An undisclosed media company has invested approximately $10m in US-based media company The Daily Dot, the New York Observer reported on Tuesday.
Launched in 2011 with $600,000 of seed funding, The Daily Dot models itself as the internet’s own hometown newspaper, covering online communities, forums and social networks such as Reddit and Tumblr, as well as e-sports and general internet-focused politics, economics or lifestyle pieces.
The company recorded 22.5 unique users in January 2015, a fourfold year-on-year increase.
Although the identity of the investor has not been revealed, Observer speculated that, as chief executive Nicholas White is part of the family that runs media company Sandusky Newspaper Group, it may have been the business in question.
The Daily Dot, will use the funding to continue building its online presence, expanding into video content and securing premium programmatic advertising.
The company has not confirmed the amount raised or revealed details of funding between 2011 and 2015, and White said in a blog post on Tuesday that it has made a conscious decision to eschew venture funding.
“Since our inception, the Daily Dot has been privately funded by individuals and companies that have deep roots in the media business.” White said. “That is because we are first and foremost a journalistic enterprise, which could be compromised by venture funding.
“Given our goal we do not believe the Daily Dot is a good fit for venture capital at this time. VCs need their investments to sell or IPO in a certain time frame to get a return for their own investors. That is great for certain kinds of companies – pure tech products especially. But it is not right for media startups, and it is not right for us. We did not get into this business to get out of it.”