Yuri Milner, co-founder of the prominent Russian Internet fund DST, is among the investors in Path, the much-hyped ‘mobile-centric social network’ launched in 2010. The investment round, which amounts to at least $30 million, was led by venture firm Redpoint Ventures, CNet reported on Monday, with entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Mark Pincus and Jerry Murdock, as well as investment funds Kleiner Perkins, Allen & Co. and Greylock Partners.
Milner has invested in a number of US startups. Among his recent targets over the past year were iPad medical publisher DrChrono, video chat service Airtime, and Flotype, a startup that offers realtime messaging technologies for cloud and mobile applications.
Path enables users to keep a personal journal, or “Path”, of their life and share it with close friends and family. In contrast to Facebook, the startup limits its members to a maximum of 150 friends, defined as “the people who matter most in your life.”
“We felt that tighter social networks where you can share more without being afraid of giving up your privacy was a big thing,” CNet quoted a Redpoint representative as saying.
But Path came under fire last month in a controversy about privacy, when it appeared that the site was automatically uploading and storing users’ personal data without gaining their consent. Path apologized and changed the service’s mobile settings.
The San Francisco-headquartered startup, which claims over two million users all over the world, has made its site available only in English so far. It plans to offer new versions in a number of languages, including Russian, in the future.
