Bragster, a leading social network for dares and social bets, today announced it closed a $3.5 million Series A round of venture capital funding led by Intel Capital, the global investment arm of Intel Corp. The funds will be used to support future product launches, scale the team, accommodate new partners’ requests and market the site.
The funding comes at a key moment for the year-old site, which has built an audience of 800,000 viewers in just 12 months. As social networking has spiralled upward to millions of users and $1.2 billion in advertising revenues last year, its success has a price: The leading social networks have become too large, unwieldy and homogenized for many users. Bragster founders Wim Vernaeve and Bertrand Bodson are leveraging the audience shift to connect with more targeted communities. They believe a site with higher-value content that targets a specific audience will create more engaged users and, by extension, a more attractive value proposition for advertisers.
“How many times have you told a friend ’I bet you can't do this?’ That’s the inspiration behind Bragster,” said Vernaeve, who worked at Morgan Stanley in London before launching the site in 2007. “Bragster was founded to record all the crazy things our friends were bragging about but never seemed to happen. There's a competitive spirit in each of us and challenges everywhere, and Bragster is available to record and enrich them.”
Bodson, who co-founded Bragster after working at Amazon.com, said the site is a unique entertainment channel. “Every story has its own build up and rich media content, created by our community of users. Intel Capital‘s role as an investor will help us write the next exciting chapter in our young company’s history.”
“The social networking market segment is experiencing tremendous growth but has yet to find an optimal business model,” said Alain-Gabriel Courtines, Investment Director at Intel Capital. “Bragster’s understanding of social media along with its broad entertainment appeal positions it to capitalize on this opportunity and create a richer, deeper experience for both advertisers and users.”
Intel Capital led the funding round, joined by David Frankel through Puressence Limited. Frankel previously invested in companies including GetMeIn and SiteAdvisor, sold to Ticketmaster and McAfee, respectively.
About Bragster
Bragster is the place to dare your friends online and brag about it after posting evidence. It combines the power of online communities with the fun of having dares, challenges and bets among friends. The company was founded by Wim Vernaeve and Bertrand Bodson in 2006 and the site launched in January 2007, reaching over 800,000 unique visitors from over 150 countries by the end of its first year. The largest markets by far are the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. More information can be found at http://www.bragster.com.
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing, and cleantech. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$7.5 billion in approximately 1,000 companies in 45 countries. In that timeframe, 168 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 212 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2007, Intel Capital invested about US$639 million in 166 deals with approximately 37 percent of funds invested outside the United States. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com.
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