High Gear Media, the publisher of automotive media sites, has secured $5.5 million in Series B funding led by DAG Ventures with Accel Partners and Greylock Partners participating. The company raised $6.5 million in Series A funding in November 2007 from Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.
High Gear will use the funds expand its media network and acquire other media properties. High Gear owns and operates 38 auto websites including TheCarConnection.com, GreenCarReports.com, AllCarsElectric.com and
AllAboutPrius.com.
The network’s sites aggregate automotive content from around the web and syndicate content to other automotive websites and news sites such as Yahoo! Autos, The San Francisco Chronicle and Glam Media, among others.
Now they can start their mobile distribution efforts.
Seems they have the same template with different content and design (if you look at those sites belonging to them).
Having so many of them, promoting independently, stuff them with affiliates or Adsense and you can get some visitors and some money.
Syndication helps too.
so what next?
The graph on this website does not open in IE….
i.e. you can understand
A lot of activity is happening in the only Auto services arena, and auto search websites like iseecars.com.
With the exception of the Car Connection site, I’m not sure I understand this valuation. None of the sites are particularly high traffic, and some haven’t even been updated in month.
Additionally, with the auto industry at a relative low, this seems.. odd.
38 websites? Most with hardly any traffic. From what I read at High Gear, the business model is based on trying to get auto reviews from writers who want to express themselves with a hope of future compensation. Then they plan to run Adsense along side that unpaid content? Come on, you have to be smarter than that. But oh well, the Palo Alto venture groups will dump 11 million into it because they think their brilliant.
me too, what’s the next !
A lot of activity is happening in the only Auto services arena, and auto search websites like iseecars.com.