Bitly, the social bookmarking and discovery service, has raised $15 million in what it characterized as a strategic round of funding led by Vinod Khosla at Khosla Ventures. Previous investors RRE Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures also participated.
The round brings the company’s total venture funding to $28.5 million. Bitly said the funds will help it grow and continue its transition beyond being a simple utility for web users.
Bitly was most recently in the news following its complete revamp in May, changes that repositioned the company from being a platform for link shortening and tracking to being a consumer-oriented service for curating, sharing and discovering collections of online content.
That move was very controversial among Bitly’s business users, but the company reports it is pleased with the overall results, adding that daily registrations have increased by 300 percent since the changes.
Related links:
Bitly – http://bitly.com
All Things D – Bitly Raises $15M Led by Khosla Ventures
GigaOm – Social discovery service bitly raises $15M round led by Khosla
TechCrunch – Bitly Announces $15M Round Led By Khosla Ventures, Says Controversial Redesign Increased User Sign Ups
Betabeat – Bitly Raises $15 M. Round from Khosla Ventures After Giving Consumers a Reason to Subscribe
