Backplane, a Palo Alto, CA-based start-up that operates a “social corridor” uniting people around interests, affinities and movements, has closed a Series A round of financing of undisclosed amount.
Backers include new investors Sequoia Capital, Greylock Discovery Fund, Battery Ventures, Formation 8, Advance/Newhouse Investment Partnership an affiliate of Conde Nast, as well as existing investors Google Ventures, Founders Fund Angel, Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, i/o Ventures, and a group of individual investors.
The company intends to use the capital to accelerate the expansion of its engineering and development teams.
Founded in 2011, by CEO Matt Michelsen, Troy Carter, Alex Moore and Joey Primiani, Backplane is already home to many social communities including Lady Gaga’s #LittleMonsters (http://littlemonsters.com/), which is scaling as a private beta site, with plans for a public release in the spring of 2012.
Additional communities will launch throughout the year.
The company has also acquired the i/o Ventures’ start-up Cortex, which is a web-based sharing platform created by by Joey Primiani.
FinSMEs
16/02/2012