x

What future are you building?

Get insights from our founders and portfolio news straight to your inbox.

  • Portfolio News
  • 03 April 2014
  • 10 min read
  • Words: Northzone

Bloglovin Raises $7 Million in Series A Financing Led by Northzone

New York, NY – April 3, 2014 Bloglovin, a platform that pulls users’ favorite blogs into a single, beautiful feed, empowering users to discover and curate content across the world’s lifestyle publishers, today announced it has raised $7 million in Series A financing. European investor Northzone led the round with participation from existing investors including Betaworks, Lerer Ventures, White Star Capital and Bassett Investment Group, as well as new personal investments from the Babble and SoulCycle founders.

The investment will enable the company to recruit new talent, accelerate plans to grow the users and the blogger base across key categories including Fashion, Beauty, Food, and DIY, and introduce new engagement and personalization features.

“Bloglovin is both a source of inspiration and a guilty pleasure for 16 million users and a professional platform for our growing base of more than 500,000 bloggers from around the world,” said Joy Marcus, CEO, Bloglovin. “The company was founded to simplify and enrich people’s lives by helping them find what they love to read about, all in one convenient beautiful place. With the support of our investors, we will continue to listen to our users and provide them with more opportunities for curation, discovery and community on our platform.”

Founded in 2007 in a garage in Sweden, Bloglovin was brought to the United States in 2013 and received seed funding from New York based startup studio Betaworks, venture capital firms Lerer Ventures and White Star Capital, as well as other leading early stage investors. In February, digital media veteran Joy Marcus was appointed CEO of Bloglovin.

“We are excited to support the continued growth of Bloglovin which in 2013 more than tripled in size,” said Par-Jorgen Parson, General Partner, Northzone. “The combination of visionary Founders and a seasoned CEO addressing the women’s lifestyle media market has the potential for real disruption and significant value creation.”

Par-Jorgen Parson, who was awarded “Investor of the Year” at the prestigious European Investor AllStars Awards in 2013, will join the Board of Directors of Bloglovin. He also serves on the Boards of Spotify, Avito.ru, Widespace, Videoplaza and Jasper Design Automation Inc.

“Our community of passionate users has driven tremendous growth over the past 18 months,” said Bruce Jaffe, Bloglovin’s Chairman of the Board and a principal investor. “With the support of global partners like Northzone, we can continue to innovate in ways that grow the user base and further engage our loyal following.”

About Bloglovin
Bloglovin is a platform that pulls users’ favorite blogs into a single, beautiful feed, and allows them to discover the best content in fashion and lifestyle, based on taste, interest and social connections. Mattias Swenson, his brother Daniel Swenson and three high school classmates, Patrik Ring, Dan Carlberg and Daniel Gren, created Bloglovin in 2007 out of a garage in Taby, Sweden, just outside of Stockholm. Today, Bloglovin reaches 16 million active users from around the world. Bloglovin is available on the web, iOS and Android. Visit www.bloglovin.com.

About Northzone
Founded in 1996, Northzone has to date raised seven funds and invested in some 100 technology companies including Spotify, Avito.ru, Stepstone, Lastminute, Nimsoft and Pricerunner. The company has offices in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, London and New York. www.northzone.com

Media Contact: Erin Kurtz
Hunt & Gather
erin@hunt-gather.com
646-790-1613