BuzzFeed just announced that it has raised another $200 million from NBCUniversal.
That might sound a little familiar, since the company raised a round of the same size last year. Plus, Recode reported last month that NBCUniversal was doubling down, and the news seemed to be confirmed by a Delaware filing.
The funding release points to past collaborations between the two companies, like joint ad sales and a content partnership between NBC’s Today and BuzzFeed’s food-focused Tasty.
Apparently we can expect more of those deals moving forward, with BuzzFeed helping to create and promote native ads for NBCUniversal’s Content Studio, NBCUniversal selling ads on BuzzFeed and BuzzFeed creating “new digital consumer experiences” for NBCUniversal content.
“NBCUniversal has been a tremendous partner this past year and we can’t wait to do more with them,” said BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti in a statement. “Our collaboration has allowed us to focus on our respective strengths, learn from each other, and serve our combined audience better with compelling news, entertainment, and advertising offerings that neither company could do on our own. The investment allows us to remain a fully independent company but have access to and resources from the strongest and best media company there is.”
Earlier today, BuzzFeed also revealed that it had quietly acquired Scroll, an e-commerce company from the founder of Quirky. So yes, soon it’s also going to be trying to sell you stuff.