CafeMom, a social network for mothers
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.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
