Medium Valuation, Funding & Investors
Medium is valued at $600M as of April 2016.
Last Medium valuation
$600M
Series C · Apr 2016
Last Medium funding round
$31M
Undisclosed stage · Nov 2021
Cumulative funding Medium raised
$163M
across 4 funding rounds
Key investors in Medium
Andreessen Horowitz
GV
Greylock
Spark Capital
Obvious Ventures
Lowercase Capital
About Medium
Medium is a San Francisco-headquartered online publishing platform launched in 2012 where users share articles on diverse topics. The service curates personalized feeds based on followed writers and publications, incorporating features like audio narration and paywalled content via Medium Partner Program. Medium hosts millions of monthly readers engaging through claps, highlights, and responses across technology, culture, and science verticals.
Founded
2011
HQ
San Francisco, CAWebsite
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2C
Revenue model
Subscription
Valuation
$600M (Apr 2016)
Medium Valuation
Medium is currently valued at $600M, based on its Series C in April 2016.
The $50M round was led by Spark Capital, with participation from GV and Andreessen Horowitz.
Medium's valuation has grown 1.5x from $400M at its Series B in September 2015 to $600M in April 2016, across 2 priced rounds.
Medium valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2016 | Series C | $600M |
| Sep 2015 | Series B | $400M |
Medium Funding History
Medium has raised a total of $163M across 4 funding rounds.
Medium's first fundraising round was a $25M Series A in January 2014. The most recent completed round was a $31M undisclosed-stage round in November 2021.
Medium funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2021 | Undisclosed stage | - | $31M | - | - |
| Apr 2016 | Series C | Spark Capital (lead); GV; Andreessen Horowitz | $50M | $600M | Medium, a blogging and publishing platform founded in 2011 by Twitter co-founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone, raised $50 million in a Series C funding round on April 21, 2016, led by Spark Capital with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and GV (Google Ventures). The round was completed at a $600 million valuation, up from the $400 million valuation during its $57 million Series B in September 2015, bringing total funding to $132 million. Ev Williams noted the raise was to bolster resources amid strong demand for Medium's vision of creating the best platform for sharing great ideas and stories. Medium differentiates itself as a simple, beautiful, and collaborative blogging service with strong content discovery features, enabling users to find and share meaningful stories. The platform was evolving into a full publishing solution, attracting independent publications like The Awl, Pacific Standard, and The Bold Italic, which committed to migrating their sites to Medium. New tools included design customization, custom URLs, and migration support to facilitate this shift. Spark Capital's Kevin Thau highlighted Medium's focus on 'verticalized' social media for thoughtful, timeless content sharing, contrasting it with ephemeral platforms like Snapchat. Board changes included additions of Andreessen Horowitz's Ben Horowitz and JLabs CEO Judy Estrin, with Greylock's David Sze stepping down. |
| Sep 2015 | Series B | Andreessen Horowitz (lead); GV; TCG; Obvious Ventures; Lowercase Capital; Greylock | $57M | $400M | Medium, the collaborative blogging platform founded by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, raised $57 million in a Series B funding round on September 28, 2015, led by Andreessen Horowitz with significant participation from Google Ventures (GV), Greylock Partners, Obvious Ventures, The Chernin Group (TCG), and Lowercase Capital angels. Sources confirmed the round valued the company at $400 million post-money, bringing total funding to $82 million including a prior $25 million Series A led by Greylock in 2014. The investment aimed to strengthen Medium's position as a pipeline for quality content and conversation, with plans to announce new features and partnerships at an October 7 event. At the time, Medium reported over 20,000 weekly writers, up four times from the previous year, and 25 million monthly unique visitors as of May 2015. The platform emphasized a non-traditional approach, avoiding focus on pageviews, unique visitors, or click metrics, and instead prioritizing quality content discovery through a simple, beautiful, collaborative interface. Medium had evolved from longform content to include tech and culture publications like Matter, Backchannel, The Nib, and The Message, while experimenting with structural shifts in editorial and management practices. Monetization was nascent, with founder Ev Williams noting exploration of paywalls and branded content, alongside existing models like sponsored content, ads, and Epic Magazine. Medium recently launched an Android app to facilitate mobile publishing. This funding occurred amid a wave of investments in digital media, positioning Medium against competitors like Buzzfeed and Vox Media in a shifting landscape influenced by platforms like Facebook and Google. |
| Jan 2014 | Series A | Greylock (lead) | $25M | - | Medium is a modern publishing platform developed at The Obvious Corporation, the incubator founded by Twitter founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jason Goldman. The platform enables simple online publishing, featuring writing across all genres and subject matters. In January 2014, Medium raised $25 million in Series A funding led by David Sze and Josh Elman of Greylock Partners, with participation from angel investors and friends of the company. Evan Williams noted that while he could have continued investing personally, bringing new partners into the fold would give the company the best chance for success. The company subsequently raised a Series B round at a $550 million valuation in September 2015, and a $50 million Series C round in April 2021, demonstrating strong investor confidence in the publishing platform. |
Who has invested in Medium?
7 investors have backed Medium across its funding rounds, including Andreessen Horowitz, GV, Greylock, Spark Capital, Obvious Ventures and Lowercase Capital.
Lead investors include Spark Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock.
Medium Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | 2 | Participant | Sep 2015 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 2 | Lead | Sep 2015 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 2 | Lead | Jan 2014 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 1 | Lead | Apr 2016 | |
| Los Angeles, CA | 1 | Participant | Sep 2015 | |
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 7 Medium investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
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Start Free TrialAcquisitions by Medium
Medium has acquired 9 companies to date.
Last acquisition by Medium was on November 16th 2021. Medium acquired Knowable Universe for undisclosed valuation.
Latest Acquisitions by Medium
| Description | Knowable Universe produces audio courses on skill-building topics through a team of editors, producers, and journalists from outlets like The New York Times and NPR. The platform curates engaging podcasts covering professional development, languages, and creative pursuits. San Francisco-headquartered, it emphasizes narrative-driven learning with contributions from subject-matter experts worldwide. | Projector App builds collaborative tools for visual storytelling including video editing, GIF creation, social media content, and presentations. The platform supports real-time team editing and integrates with design software for seamless workflows. San Francisco-headquartered since 2015, it empowers product teams to extend app experiences through engaging visual communications. | Projector is a San Francisco-based platform founded in 2015 that enables developers and product teams to create collaborative visual content like videos, GIFs, social media posts, and presentations. It extends app functionalities through embeddable tools for enhanced user engagement and storytelling. | Glose is a Paris-headquartered digital reading platform available on web, iOS, and Android. Users purchase ebooks from publishers like Hachette and Penguin Random House, annotate margins, and follow other readers' highlights. Glose supports social reading features for book clubs and discussions within titles. The service covers fiction, non-fiction, and comics in multiple languages across Europe and North America. | |
| HQ Country | | | |  | |
| HQ City | Los Angeles, CA | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA | Paris | |
| Deal Date | 16 Nov 2021 | 10 Nov 2021 | 9 Nov 2021 | 14 Jan 2021 | |
| Valuation | undisclosed | undisclosed | undisclosed | undisclosed | |
| EV/Revenue | |||||
| EV/EBITDA | |||||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Medium acquisitions and their M&A valuation multiples. Start Free Trial | |||||
Medium Competitors
Medium competitors include listed companies like Zhihu and Webtoon, and private ones like ShareChat, Flipboard, Douguo and Fandom.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bangalore | Private | $77M | - | $5B | 64.9x | |
| San Francisco, CA | Private | $34M | - | $800M | 23.5x | |
 Beijing | Private | - | - | $300M | - | |
| San Francisco, CA | Private | - | - | $284M | - | |
| China | Publicly listed | $410M | ($34M) | $258M | - | |
| United States | Publicly listed | $1.4B | ($373M) | $1.4B | 0.6x |
Medium Public Comps
Medium is still privately-owned, but its public comps include Weathernews, VNG Corp., Better Collective, Hello Group, Wirtualna Polska, Bumble, Sichuan Newsnet Media, Yalla Group, Value Line and m-up holdings.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $157M | $38M | 2.9x | 2.9x | 11.9x | 11.9x | |||
| $420M | $23M | 1.4x | - | 25.5x | - | |||
| $388M | $100M | 2.5x | 2.4x | 9.8x | 7.7x | |||
| $1.5B | $215M | - | - | - | - | |||
| $585M | $102M | 1.4x | 1.3x | 8.1x | 5.6x | |||
| $966M | ($793M) | 0.8x | 0.9x | (1.0x) | 2.9x | |||
| $46M | $14M | 7.0x | - | 22.5x | - | |||
| $342M | $128M | - | - | - | - | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Medium competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Medium
| When was Medium founded? | Medium was founded in 2011. |
| Where is Medium headquartered? | Medium is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, United States. |
| Is Medium publicly listed? | No, Medium is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Medium's valuation? | Medium was last valued at $600M in its Series C in April 2016. |
| How much funding has Medium raised? | Medium has raised $163M across 4 funding rounds. |
| What was Medium's last funding round? | Medium's last funding round was a $31M undisclosed-stage round in November 2021. |
| Who are Medium's investors? | Medium's investors include GV, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, Spark Capital, TCG, Obvious Ventures and Lowercase Capital. |
| Which companies are comparable to Medium? | Companies comparable to Medium include ShareChat, Flipboard, Douguo, Fandom, Zhihu and Webtoon. |
| How many companies has Medium acquired? | Medium has acquired 9 companies, including Knowable Universe, Projector App, Projector, Glose and The Bold Italic. |
See companies similar to Medium
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