About.me, which was launched in 2009, has announced that they are returning to life as an independent company. The personal identity website will be financially backed by their management team and a group of investors who have backed companies such as WordPress and Google. Co-founders Ryan Freitas and Tony Conrad wrote in a press release that their core team will remain the same.
AOL purchased About.me four days after the company went public in 2010 for low double-digit millions. Figures were not released but Business Insider reported that the deal was an “amazing Christmas bonus for (Conrad’s) teammates.”
About.me is a personal identity platform that allows users to increase their online presence. Users can build a quick and clean personal profile where they can publish links to their personal achievements and social presences from around the social media and internet world. In addition, the site offers statistics on who visited their page, what they clicked on and where they came from.
The decision to retract from AOL may have been brought on by the site wanting to get back to their start up roots. The New York Times reported that About.me will announce a $5.7 million funding round later this week from True Ventures, Google Ventures, Founder Collective, Ron Conway and Crunch Fund.
“Our commitment is to make about.me the web’s starting point for identity — we believe everyone will eventually have an about.me page they integrate into their email signature, add to their Twitter bio or embed in one of their blogs. Very few products have a legitimate shot at becoming ubiquitous and we think building about.me as an independent company is the best way to get there,” the founders said in their letter to the public.
Source: Digital Trends
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