The $32m in financing comes from the French Sovereign Fund, who are existing shareholders, and new investors including Allianz and some Middle Eastern private funds.
The company, which has been profitable since the last quarter in 2009, was founded in May 2004 by French businessmen, Dan Serfaty and Thierry Lunati.
Dan Serfaty, Co-founder and CEO of Viadeo
Viadeo has seen steady growth since its launch, raising over $13m in funding between 2006 and 2007. During that time Viadeo also acquired the Chinese business social network, Tianji.com.
Viadeo claims its site attracts more than 30,000 new members every day, totalling nearly 1 million per month. The service is currently available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Tianji homepage
Viadeo is already the No. 1 professional social network in France (5.5 million members), China (10 million) and West Africa (2.5 million). While Viadeo’s user base of 45 million is still a far cry from LinkedIn’s 150 million members, if this kind of growth continues Linkedin will soon see Viadeo closing in its rear view mirror.
Please follow this author on Twitter @Tineka_S or comment below.
