Everloop raises $3.1M to bring social networking to tweens

Everloop, a social networking service aimed at children 8-13 years old (who are too young to use Facebook), just announced that it has raised $3.1 million in funding.

There has been a lot of talk about a possible tech startup bubble, particularly in social networking, but it sounds like Danville, Calif.-based Everloop has been running without much capital. Even though Everloop raised some angel funding before this, when I spoke to co-founder and chief executive Hilary DeCesare last week, she talked about weathering a tough economic and fundraising climate.

“When you’ve made it through the worst economic times, you know this team isn’t going to let it go until this thing hits big,” DeCesare said.

Everloop was unveiled at the DEMO conference co-produced by VentureBeat in March 2010. The site, which is organized into different interest networks called “loops” (one of the most popular loops is currently “Facebook vs. Everloop”), is supposedly compatible with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Users can’t post any personally identifiable information on the site, and it’s also designed to prevent cyberbullying and inappropriate behavior.

One of the company’s big aims is getting Everloop into classrooms, and earlier this year it announced a partnership with i-Safe to accelerate those efforts. Today, it also announced that it supports SMS text messaging through its EverText service.

The new funding comes from vFormation, Band of Angels, Envoi Ventures, Richard Chino, Wayne Goodrich of Apple, Deena Burnett-Bailey of Angels of Hope, and others.