Ambitious search engine startup Blekko has closed a new $30 million funding round, the company announced today.
Unlike search giant Google, Blekko uses slashtags to help filter results, which means it searches only the sites you want and discards the bulk of spammy and artificially-gamed SEO sites. The startup launched its search engine in 2010.
The new round was led by Yandex, the top Russian search engine company that also operates in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey, with $15 million. The funding gives Yandex a minority stake in Blekko, and Yandex’s CEO will join Blekko’s board of directors. Australian investor MLC Private Equity, and existing investors U.S. Venture Partners, CMEA Capital and PivotNorth Capital also contributed to the new funding.
Founded in 2007, the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based startup has 27 employees, including former Google and Yahoo search engineers. The company has $54.2 million total funding to date.
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