BranchOut Hits 25 Million Users, Nabs $25M In Series C Funding

BranchOut is officially going for the big time. The company, which makes a professional social network that runs on top of Facebook, is announcing today it has closed on $25 million in new funding, bringing its total venture capital investment to $49 million. This latest batch of money, which serves as BranchOut's Series C round, was led by the Mayfield Fund with the participation of previous investors Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures. The money will be used mainly for hiring more employees to add to BranchOut's current full-time staff of 45, founder and CEO Rick Marini said in an interview, which you can watch in full in the video embedded above. At less than two years old, BranchOut certainly seems to be on a fast track when it comes to funding. But according to Marini, the money is only following the company's very real growth. BranchOut now has more than 25 million registered users, more than half of which -- 13.5 million -- are active on the app each month. To put those numbers into context, more than three new users are joining BranchOut every second. When BranchOut first debuted in July 2010, it was often characterized as a "LinkedIn for Facebook" -- but it's becoming apparent that BranchOut is carving out a very clear identity of its own.

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