BuzzFeed Receives $50M Funding from Andreessen Horowitz

BuzzFeed Inc. has just received $50 million in investment from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the online content platform at $850 million. As part of the deal, Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon will join the BuzzFeed board.

Founded by Huffington Post co-founder Jonah Peretti in 2006, BuzzFeed has shot to notoriety by posting lists, quizzes and news. Today, it received approximately 150 million visitors a month.

In recent months, the company has moved towards more serious news reporting, while maintaining its quirky lists and quizzes.

Andreessen Horowitz is not the only venture-capital firm to invest in BuzzFeed - Hearst Corp., SoftBank Corp., and most recently, an investor group led by venture firm New Enterprise Associates, which invested $19.3 million in January 2013 – have also joined the board.

Andreessen Horowitz’s funding brings BuzzFeed’s total money raised to almost $100 million, up from $46 million last year. The funding will be used to help the company expand into Mumbai, Mexico City, Berlin and Tokyo. It will also go towards developing BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, the company announced today.

“We’re presently in the midst of a major technological shift in which, increasingly, news and entertainment are being distributed on social networks and consumed on mobile devices,” Dixon said in a blog post. “We believe BuzzFeed will emerge from this period as a preeminent media company.”