Klout Raises $30 Million

Talk about influential. The social media ranking system Klout has secured approximately $30 million in Series C funding. According to AllThingsDigital's sources, the company is now estimated to be worth $200 million. Kleiner Perkins led the round, along with Institutional Venture Partners, Venrock, Greycroft Partners and ff Venture Capital. Chi-Hua Chien from Kleiner Perkins will join Kleiner's Bing Gordon, Mayfield's Allen Morgan and Klout CEO Joe Fernandez on the Klout board of directors. Klout collects data from across a user's social media sites to find out what which kinds of content they are creating and sharing, and who is watching and passing it along. This is a more sophisticated approach to measuring a person's influence than simply counting the number of friends. For journalists, Klout is a great way to see how much traction their stories and tweets gain on Twitter, Facebook and other sites after they've been posted. Brands use Klout Perks, which is the company's current revenue source, to find influential people and offer them incentives to spread the word about their products. Past perks have included a Beck's beer bottle featuring Andy Warhol's mug on the label, samples of Top Chef-inspired entrees and invitations to Business Insider's Social Media Analytics conference. Truly, something for everyone. Founded in 2008, Klout is based in San Fransisco and, according to TechCrunch, has around 45 employees. In January 2011 company left the building it shared with Twitter for a bigger office after an $8.5 million round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins and with participation from Greycroft Partners. This latest round of funding could mean new features and massive scaling, but CEO Joe Fernandez merely hinted at what's in store for the company in a blog post: We’ve already made significant investments in both engineering and infrastructure, and with this funding we’ll invest further in these areas so we can continue to provide the most accurate and transparent measurement of influence. We’ll also help our community become better users of social media, expand Klout Perks so that all influencers are rewarded for their influence, and make it clear why it pays to have Klout. The company could not be reached for more details. Image: Cienpies Design via Shutterstock

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Klout Raises $30 Million

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