Ello Raises $5.5 Million, Solidifies Ad-Free Existence

Ello, the social network that's also not a network (or very social), has raised another $5.5 million. The venture funding comes on the heels of a massive expansion last month that saw a flood of users bog down Ello servers, causing the company to freeze sign-ups for a bit. At a peak of roughly 45,000 new users daily, Ello was growing faster than could be comfortably managed. This new funding will help with that, but Ello has also made it nearly impossible to ever show ads on their network.

In addition to this funding round, Ello has filed as a Public Benefits Corporation in Delaware. As such, they're prohibited from displaying ads on their site or network. As sparsely laid out as the site is, at least it won't be cluttered with ads.

The $5.5 million raised will reportedly go to building out a system that can handle their prospective user base. Currently, Ello has over 3 million people waiting to sign up.

There may not be ads, but Ello will monetize. The startup social whatever-you-want-to-call-it hasn't yet made clear just how they'll do that, but monetizing features seems to be their aim. The service will always be free, but if you want added functionality (say, the ability to post video) in the future, you might have to pay for it.

As for all the chatter about Ello killing of Facebook, remember that according to their last earnings statement, Facebook makes roughly $5 million daily.

Via: Re/Code