Politico cofounder Jim Vanderhei’s news startup Axios has raised $20 million in a round of funding, reports the Wall Street Journal. The round was co-led by Greycroft Partners and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.
Over the last year, the site has gained prominence as a destination for short-form news bits, analysis, as well as insider-y/access pieces. This strategy, at least for now, seems to be working; the Journal writes that Axios exceeded $10 million in revenue in its first seven months.
Still, media is a gnarly business. This investment will be reportedly used to help Axios scale while other companies falter. It plans to grow its team of 89 to around 150. As I wrote yesterday, both Vice and BuzzFeed are reported to be significantly missing their estimated revenue targets. Meanwhile, Mashable is reportedly being acquired by publisher Ziff Davis at a fraction of what it was valued at a little over a year ago.
So while things may seem rosy now for Axios, these examples show that the company has its work cut out for it.
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