Open secrets have a way of getting out eventually. Betabeat first reported the scuttlebutt that Klout was closing in on a round of funding in October and now AllThingsD has confirmation from Klout. The social influence measuring service admits that Series C round everyone had an inkling about did indeed close in November.
CEO Joe Fernandez said Kleiner Perkins, which lead the startup’s $8.5 million Series B round in January, also lead this round with KPCB partner Chi-Hua Chien joining the board. Although Mr. Fernandez wouldn’t comment on the price or valuation, multiple sources, including Business Insider, are reporting that it was a $30 million round, which put the company at a $200 million valuation.
Although based in California, Klout has a number of local investors, including ff Venture Capital (venture partner Mike Yavonditte was a seed-stage investor), which joined the round along with Institutional Venture Partners, Venrock, and Greycroft Partners. Mr. Fernandez told AllThingsD, that Klout currently handles 10 billion API calls per month, up from 100 million per month in January 2010.
So what will the child-profiling service, which as angered early adopters with fluctuating scores, and confused observers with the kind of algorithm that rates Robert Scoble over President Obama going to do with the cash?
Considering revenue relies on Klout Perks, where marketers can target influencers with free stuff, hopefully they’ll spend it on fine-tuning their algorithms and offering better Perks. Currently, Betabeat is eligible for lift tickets (we don’t ski), Slimfast (we enjoy real food), and something to do with a Mark Wahlberg movie (we are big fans of Boogie Nights, +1).
If not that, there’s always banking.
