AboutUs completes Series A Funding; our plans for the future

As reported today in xconomy, TechCrunch, TechFlash, The Oregonian, and the Portland Business Journal, we recently completed a Series A funding round, raising about $5 million from angel investors and venture capital firms. Led by a $2.5 million investment by venture capital firm Voyager Capital, the Series A funding tops off an active year.

Our successes in 2008 and over the 2.5 years since our launch are just prelude to what we will do in 2009 and beyond to create a truly collaborative space connecting people and businesses. To that extent, the Series A funding (and inclusion of Voyager Capital’s managing director, Erik Benson, to our board) allows AboutUs to transition from “startup mode” to a more strategic direction inviting participation from people and groups to connect and collaborate in new ways.

The xconomy.com article sums up our ambitions in this way nicely:

“Our long-term mission revolves around transforming the way people work,” [AboutUs CEO] Ray King says. “What we’ll focus on in 2009 is correlating all the like pages and interests, to form a topological map of the Web.” That will help people “discover other folks who have similar interests,” he says. Benson calls this “fostering a community culture while building a ’system of truth’ for information on businesses worldwide.”

For us, the goal of AboutUs has never been simply compiling an encyclopedic resource with one-sided information about a company or organization, but creating a multi-layered conversation where employees, clients, vendors and bloggers all share their unique viewpoints. Again, from the xconomy.com story:

“It’s not about being an information source, it’s about creating a technical platform on which people can work together,” King says. “It could be transformative for how people connect to each other.” … “We’re working on strategic initiatives around greater user engagement, moving towards collaborative work,” he says. As I understand it, that means moving out of startup frenzy mentality, and towards the strategic focus of helping people and groups connect and collaborate more effectively on the Web.

The Series A funding allows us to continue to grow and you along with us. We’re excited about the possibilities for the future and can’t wait for you to join us. Even now, we’ve got a number of things brewing at “AboutUs Labs” that will knock your socks off.

Tagged as: AboutUs Links, Series A, venture capital, Voyager Capital