Outside.in brings in another round of funding for hyperlocal content
By Azam on December 16, 2008 
Outside.in, the web’s leading platform for personalized hyperlocal news and conversations, announced today the closing of its latest round of funding. The financing is primarily from existing venture and angel investors, including Union Square Ventures, the New York City Investment Fund, and Betaworks. It comes after a year of considerable growth in audience, technology, and product development.
This fall, the company also successfully began the distribution of its GeoToolkit service to a network of thousands of local media sites. GeoToolkit is a suite of tools designed to help local publishers optimize their content for the geographic web. The first major product is StoryMaps, which offers publishers “geographic navigation for geographic content.” Thanks in part to the adoption of StoryMaps, Outside.in’s unique users grew more than 400% from January to November.
StoryMaps can been seen on leading local newspaper sites such as the Boston Herald and Sacramento Bee, as well as popular local blog networks and sites including Metblogs.com, Mommypoppins.com, Eatingwithmymouthful.com, New Columbia Heights Blog, and Riverwest Neighborhood Network.
“New products, partners and growth made 2008 a great year for Outside.in,” said Mark Josephson, CEO. “We have built a tremendous platform for organizing and distributing hyperlocal news and conversations, and with this support from our investors we expect a strong 2009.”
Outside.In has disclosed a total of $5.4 million in funding from a large list of VC firms (including Union Square, Milestone Venture Partners and Village Ventures), as well as private investors like Esther Dyson, Marc Andreessen and John Seeley Brown.
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Tags : Betaworks, Esther Dyson, Hyperlocal, John Seeley Brown, Marc Andreessen, Mark Josephson, Milestone Venture Partners and Village Ventures, outside.in, StoryMaps, Union Square