2008 is the year of the search engine startup. Hot on the heels of Powerset’s partial launch earlier this week, stealth search engine Blekko (no logo, no website, just this and, apparently, some technology) raised a second round of financing.
The company raised $3 million in equity at a $23 million post-money valuation. All previous investors participated, and new investors Marc Andreessen, SoftTech VC and Western Technology Investment also invested. They simultaneously closed a $1 million lease line with Western Technology Investment for server leases.
We don’t know much yet about Blekko, which was founded by former Topix founder/CEO Rich Skrenta. The company says they won’t be launching anything to the public until 2009. See our original post on Blekko for more background information.
See our coverage of Cuill as well, another hot stealth search startup we’re tracking.
Can someone please for the love of god, Please tell me how you get a second round of funding with no logo, no website…. LoL -(I mean what exactly have you been working on since the first round of funding, if you don’t even have a logo or a site.. LoL)
-just curious.
Powerset 37274636336.0 anyone?
Its name says all about it
Damn! 23MD for a muppet, that’s one happy muppet.
Crazyglues-
Forget the damn logo, tag line or anything else… how about a f’ing text box and ’search’ button? this is supposed to be a SEARCH ENGINE is it not?
I am sure the guys investing had a closer look at the technology. Andreesen certainly knows what he’s talking about in software technology. The fact that the don’t show anything publicly and still get funded tells me that there is something with a lot of potential in the bushes.
Peter
follow me @ http://twitter.com/peterurban
about time google start sharing some adv dough.
@ Crazyglues
It’s all about the networks, who you know, what you know and etc …. having lots of credentials won’t hurt either ..
I worked with the Blekko team at Topix. They’re a very smart bunch of guys.
Can’t wait to see what they’re cookin’ up. Knowing them it should be pretty exciting stuff.
-Arin
Rich Skrenta is a really smart guy and Andreesen is even smarter, so I’m guessing there may be something here….as opposed to the other “google-beater” that launched.
Congrats to Rich! I, like Arin, await to see the results.
@ Carazyglues - Branding is the last step before you go to market and they don’t plan on launching until 2009. VC’s don’t invest in what something looks like.
interesting in its scale. three or four people don’t have to cripple google in order to be succesful…they just need to take a little nibble. none of these companies will “kill” google and i doubt that is their goal. to keep a small team fat and happy you only need to get the valuation up to about $100 million for a proposed buyer…for that, all you need to do is demonstrate a key function, not a market-beater. the trick for anyone who finally acquires and wishes to roll out these services….unless they already have a massive server infrastructure they will have to build one. that is nontrivial.
Haven’t we heared this before? This is going to be the next google. When google started out, they didnt say we going to be the next ………
Let just see what happen
Blekko … hmm quite a catchy name, whats going on in their garage?
Probably another hype like powerset. Who knows …..
I agree, that’s one happy muppet. congratulation
Nat
http://www.workersinc.com
Blekko = Blyeacho. Who comes with these names? I wonder how much the VC company that gave the funds made last year. a
Marc raised $60M on a half billion valuation for Ning, so in that context Blekko could be a deal.