VentureBeat

We’re hearing that a funding rumor going around about used textbook site Chegg isn’t quite right. Chegg has some new venture backing, but the details of TechCrunch’s story reporting that Chegg raised $15 million from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers aren’t quite right, multiple sources tell us — including Chegg chief executive Osman Rashid.

“The TechCrunch story is not accurate and that is all I can say at this point,” Rashid says. “We will be doing an announcement in due time on our funding round.”

We’re hearing another investor is involved as well as Kleiner.

Still, as Rashid implies, and as another source confirmed, Chegg has indeed raised a round of funding, and there should be more news coming soon. Last year, the Santa Clara, Calif. company raised $2.2 million from Gabriel Venture Partners and angel investor Mike Maples.

Chegg offers an interesting take on the textbook market: It allows college students to rent books instead of buying them, supposedly cutting 65 to 85 percent off the price. Anyone who has gone to college and seen the hefty dent textbooks make on your budget can see why this is appealing, especially in tough economic times. Of course, most students I knew actually tried their own version of this system by selling their textbooks back after classes end, but the savings were much smaller. Chegg also says it plants a tree for every textbook you rent.

VentureBeat heard similar rumblings back in October that Chegg had raised $15 million from Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital. Rashid denied that rumor at the time, saying that it would be “very cool” if that were true. He acknowledged that Chegg had been in talks with multiple firms, including an “unsuccesful run” at Sequoia. Looks like we’ll have to wait for more details; I’m not sure if the round is closed yet.

Updated

Used textbook site, Chegg, has hit a nerve.

Chegg is undercutting the prices of textbooks at college bookstores, and a recent BusinessWeek article about the Santa Clara, Calif. company has climbed to second place on Digg’s “Top in 24 Hours” page (as of this writing). We’re not sure exactly why. One reason may be because the young audience at Digg is enjoying the story — seeing this as a way of indirectly sticking it to the publishers and Barnes & Nobles and other college bookstore owners who currently charge such high prices. We remember being unimpressed by the discounts of used books at college, so we can empathize.

Chegg provides an alternative for textbooks and other school supplies, such as computers. It has just raised $2.2 million from Gabriel Venture Partners and angel investor Mike Maples, who backed the company earlier. The company tells VentureBeat it made $100,000 in revenue in December, though is not profitable yet. It saw 44,000 unique visitors last month, and has seen a 200 percent increase in traffic each month since August.

Update: Corrected to “thousands” for unique number. Apologies.