Medium raises $25M, so founder Ev Williams doesn’t have to keep funding it himself

How to stop giving a “f@$%” what people think? Mobile interaction design for the subconscious? Drones and human history?

All of these are topics you can explore on Medium.

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The well-known blogging platform founded by Twitter cofounder Ev Williams revealed today that it has raised $25 million. 

“Almost two years ago, we started an exploratory project at The Obvious Corporation to figure out what a publishing platform built from scratch for today’s world would look like,” Williams said in a blog post. “A platform that was open to everyone, as simple as possible, encouraged collaboration, and helped the best ideas and stories rise to the top […] We have only scratched the surface of what we are aiming to do. But now is the time to —  intelligently, organically — expand. This round is one step along the way.”

Medium was designed as a “new place on the Internet where people share ideas and stories.” The site’s design is clean and simple, so people can focus on writing and reading. The homepage features editor’s picks of interesting new articles and popular pieces.

At first, Medium only permitted a set number of contributors to keep the content’s quality high, but it opened up to anyone with a few thoughts and a keyboard in October.

Medium also puts a big emphasis on collaboration. Writers can solicit editing help from other members of the community and group posts from various authors together into collections. You can leave notes for the authors and recommend posts to your friends.

“We believe there is a significant opportunity to create new platforms for publishing and reading that are open to anyone,” said Greylock Partner’s Josh Elman, who is joining Medium’s board. “Media is still in the midst of a massive shift from print to digital […] Content has increased exponentially, but there is still a lot to be done to help people express their ideas and reach the people who would be most interested. It’s also been a challenge for readers to search for and discover things worth reading.”

Elman said his belief is Medium can become the “default place” for publishing and discovering stories of all kinds.

2013 was a big year for Medium in terms of growth and product development, according to Williams, and this funding will go toward growing the network. Greylock Partners led this round, with participation from Google Ventures, Ron Conway, Chris Sacca, Peter Chernin, Tim O’Reiily, Gary Vaynerchuk, and others.

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It is Medium’s first outside round — Williams and Obvious cofounders Biz Stone and Jason Goldman first put money into Medium to get it off the ground, and Williams said he has primarily funded it himself since.

“As an investor, I’d be happy to continue to do so,” Williams said. “As CEO, my aim is to maximize Medium’s chances for success. Expanding our network and having partners to lean on is a useful way to do that.”