Blurb. Inc., developer of free downloadable software that lets anyone lay out and print their very own book, announced today that it nabbed $5 million in third-round funding to continue building its feature BookSmart tool, according to peHub. Backers in this round included Canaan Partners and Anthem Venture Partners, both of which contributed to the $14 million the company raised prior. The San Francisco-based company also received $2.5 million in venture debt from Hercules Technology Growth Capital.
Founded in 2004, the company has built out BookSmart to import content from many different corners of the web, including text from blogs and images from Flickr, Picasa and SmugMug. Once the pages are laid out, you upload your finished book to the site and then have the option to order as many hardcover or paperback copies as you want. Its top rival is on-demand publishing site Lulu, which currently has a leg up, allowing users to upload previously designed PDFs for printing. Blurb only orders copies of books designed with the site's technology.