Business Insider, founded in 2007, will receive $25 million from a group of investors led by a unit of German media conglomerate Axel Springer SE that also includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, reports Lukas Alpert of The Wall Street Journal.
Alpert writes, “A person familiar with Business Insider’s operations said the site became profitable in the second half of last year and that revenue grew steadily throughout the year.
“‘Seven or eight years ago there was so little belief that digital content and media could be viable, that raising $100,000, $200,000 was a lot of money,’ said Henry Blodget, CEO of Business Insider. ‘We’re just now getting to the point where investors have enough confidence in the future of new media that they are writing much bigger checks.’
“The big media bets, however, rely heavily on business models that are based on new forms of digital advertising, which have yet to fully show they can drive continued revenue growth and provide measurable results for advertisers.
“Traffic at both sites has grown steadily in the past year. Business Insider’s traffic rose 55% to 35.4 million unique views in December from a year earlier, making it the most-visited business news site in the U.S., according to analytics firm comScore Inc.”
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