High Gear Media raises $5.5 M for automotive sites
High Gear Media has raised $5.5 million in a second round of funding to expand its business of running automotive sites.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company publishes 38 different web sites for car fans and shoppers. Investors include DAG Ventures, Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. To date, the company has raised $12 million. It previously raised a first round in November 2007.
The company operates sites such as TheCarConnection.com, GreenCarReports.com, AllCarsElectric.com and AllAboutPrius.com. Traffic and revenue have grown substantially in the first half of 2009 and the company expects to be profitable after this round of funding. The company runs a bunch of web sites on its own technology platform, which integrates video, photos, Twitter and Facebook.
Companies syndicating content from High Gear Media’s 38 owned and operated automotive websites include Yahoo! Autos, HuffingtonPost.com, FoxNews.com, NBCAutoShow.com, Business Insider, Oodle, The San Francisco Chronicle and Glam Media, among others. The company competes with a wide variety of web sites such as Cars.com.
