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We are used to learning the pertinent details of the latest funding rounds at startups via CrunchBase---so it is a strange twist to see CrunchBase's own funding round this week on its own data platform. AOL has announced that is spinning out Crunchbase as an independent company, hoping new independence and investment will give CrunchBase a more solid footing to develop its business in enterprise data. Currently, the site boosts an impressive 2 million unique visitors per month and it has grown by approximately 50 percent YoY. As part of the spinout, the San Francisco based startup discovery platform has raised a $7m Series A led by Emergence Capital Partners.
Some have speculated that Verizon, which acquired AOL for $4.4 billion earlier this year, would be offloading certain assets that were not core to Verizon’s bigger strategy of building out its mobile, video and OTT services. But from what we understand this deal has been in the works for years. There is some revenue being made today in areas like advertising but the bigger goal is to grow the company’s B2B business, specifically by way of licenses for its tech database.
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