CafeMom, a no-frills social network site for mothers, has raised $5 million in funding.
The site is owned by New York’s CMI Marketing, and gets its backing from Highland Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, who have supported the company for seven years, helping pump $50 million into the company — much of it coming during the last Internet boom. VentureWire (subscription required) first reported the funding news.
The company has struggled, flirting at times with profitability. Women-oriented sites are experiencing robust growth, as noted in previous coverage, suggesting this is a good a time as any for the company to get a second wind.
CafeMom’s action comes from participation with in certain groups, for example “Stay At Home Moms” which has 16,000 members. Users offer tips and practical advice. Other popular groups are “Toddler Moms” and “Raising Boys.” The company says it expects two million unique users in August. Some of that traffic is being bought with advertising on search engines. This morning, when we searched for “social network mothers” on Google, for example, CafeMom was advertising on the right hand side.
MomJunction.com, a similar company, raised $1.5 million in a first round of capital.
Other backers of CMI marketing over the years were Himalaya Capital Ventures and Perseus.
Tags: co:CafeMom, deal, inv:Draper-Fisher-Jurvetson, inv:Highland-Capital-Partners2 Comments
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Erika said:
great post- I love to learn about new social networks. 16K stay at home moms need products to buy- so advertising opportunities must be through the roof.
I would like to know what you think of VentureWire subscriptions- are they worth it for the industry news covered?
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Dawn said:
Hi Lets be friends.
7 Trackbacks
3:32 pm
Social Networks: Billy Campbell wants to friend your mom » TechAddress said:
[...] the parent company of social networks ClubMom and CafeMom, the latter of which recently received $5 million in funding from VCs Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Highland Capital Partners. Moms or not, we have a great idea [...]
3:38 pm
Branding: Microsoft is allegedly demanding that startup … » TechAddress said:
[...] the parent company of social networks ClubMom and CafeMom, the latter of which recently received $5 million in funding from VCs Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Highland Capital Partners. Moms or not, we have a great idea [...]
3:46 pm
Online Advertising: What’s Fotolog worth, and why does it matter? » TechAddress said:
[...] the parent company of social networks ClubMom and CafeMom, the latter of which recently received $5 million in funding from VCs Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Highland Capital Partners. Moms or not, we have a great idea [...]
6:58 am
VentureBeat » J&J swallows mother social networking site, Maya’s Mom said:
[...] A host of sites, from Minti to Mommybuzz, MothersClick, CafeMom and Momjunction have launched recently, raised cash, or otherwise moved aggressively to tap this niche. Internet sites focused on women are enjoying a boom, as more women come online: See our coverage of the mom sector here. CafeMom raised $5 million just last week. [...]
7:17 am
Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: August 29th, 2007 said:
[...] Mom’s get their own Social Network This reminds me of woman.com in the first web phase, as cafemom received $5 million in funding. What is this network? “Users offer tips and practical advice. Other popular groups are [...]
3:32 am
Startup Signal - Today’s Top Blog Posts on Entrepreneurship - Powered by SocialRank said:
[...] VentureBeat » CafeMom, a social network for mothers [...]
4:43 pm
CafeMom cooks up $12M more in funding » VentureBeat said:
[...] Fish Jurvetson. Based in New York, CafeMom also raised a $5 million round in August of last year (our coverage). Prior to that the company had raised $50 million, mostly during the last Internet boom of the [...]