Index Ventures made a Euros 5 million first round investment in Netlog, one of Europe’s fastest growing social portals. Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, co-founders of the Internet telephony company Skype are also investing.
The funding will allow Netlog to accelerate the roll-out of additional sites in more languages and territories, and to further build up its commercial operations. The company already operates profitably under a dual model of user payment and advertising.
Netlog was established in 2003 in Aalst, Belgium by co-founders Toon Coppens and Lorenz Bogaert, who have been running online communities in Benelux since 2000.
The company launched a pan-European network of sites under the ‘Facebox’ brand in September 2006. Since then it has attracted over 17 million registered users and generates 2 billion page views per month. Countries where sites have been established include UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Romania. All the sites are now being brought under the Netlog brand.
Neil Rimer, Index Ventures General Partner, said the company is the only social networking site to have achieved traction across Europe.
CEO Lorenz Bogaert, stressed the importance of localisation to the company’s success. “What is unique about our product is that it has been designed from the ground up to run in multiple languages and support many local communities. Everyone arriving at our site immediately sees people from their own age group and area.”
The funding will allow Netlog to accelerate the roll-out of additional sites in more languages and territories, and to further build up its commercial operations. The company already operates profitably under a dual model of user payment and advertising.
Netlog was established in 2003 in Aalst, Belgium by co-founders Toon Coppens and Lorenz Bogaert, who have been running online communities in Benelux since 2000.
The company launched a pan-European network of sites under the ‘Facebox’ brand in September 2006. Since then it has attracted over 17 million registered users and generates 2 billion page views per month. Countries where sites have been established include UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Romania. All the sites are now being brought under the Netlog brand.
Neil Rimer, Index Ventures General Partner, said the company is the only social networking site to have achieved traction across Europe.
CEO Lorenz Bogaert, stressed the importance of localisation to the company’s success. “What is unique about our product is that it has been designed from the ground up to run in multiple languages and support many local communities. Everyone arriving at our site immediately sees people from their own age group and area.”
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