The lavishly funny and trendy websites produced by Internet publisher Cheezburger took on a serious tone Monday with the influx of $30 million in venture capital — its first buy-in from venture investors — led by Boulder-based Foundry Group.
With more than 16.5 million visitors monthly — generating 375 million page views — the über-successful Seattle-based company is poised to expand in its never-ending quest to satiate the endless demand for oddball Internet humor.
The company is best known for its monikers LOLcats, Fails and other similarly amusing-yet-quirky memes — Net-speak for websites of online phenomena.
The money is coming from three venture-capital firms, led by Brad Feld’s Foundry Group, which enlisted the other two: Madrona Venture Group in Seattle and Avalon Ventures in San Diego and Cambridge, Mass.
SoftBank Capital in New York is a minor investor.
“It fits nicely within one of our core themes, companies going after a large existing online market and changing the way the entire distribution channel happens,” Feld said.
The impact on Cheezburger will be almost immediate — with 18 new jobs to be posted today, adding to the company’s staff of about 50.
Chief executive Ben Huh said the company’s history of taking “smaller risks” can now give way to “bigger opportunities.”
“We can . . . try more experiments while building a foundation for strategic growth . . . and provide users with even more content,” Huh said.
User-based Cheezburger and its companion websites — Fail Blog, Memebase and The Daily What — see about 500,000 photos and videos uploaded monthly. Company revenues come from advertising, merchandising and traditional publishing such as books.
Only about 1 percent of the material submitted is published. The remainder can become fodder for a T-shirt or a book.
David Migoya: 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com
All the fixings
$30
million venture capital from Foundry Group and two other investors
2007
year Cheezburger was founded
45
number of related websites
16.5
million number of visitors each month
375
million number of monthly page views
500,000
number of photos and videos uploaded monthly
