Zoosk is a dating social network that has been growing at a rapid pace.  The social network has about 40 million users across 40 countries.  This attracted investors to plug in $30 million as part of their Series D round of funding.  Investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, and ATA Ventures.  David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners is joining the Zoosk board of directors as a result.  The funding will be used for marketing, expansion, and other new features.

“Zoosk has been redefining the online dating experience since we launched nearly two years ago, and singles around the world have embraced our fun, safe, and social network-driven approach,” stated Zoosk co-founder and CEO Shayan Zadeh in a press release. “We are thrilled to begin our partnership with David Cowan and Bessemer Venture Partners as we work with our investors and Board to take advantage of the incredible opportunities for growth in the online dating space.

The company has about a $30 million run rate based on revenue from Premium Memberships.  Zoosk also earns revenue from virtual goods and advertising.  Zoosk is based in San Francisco and started in January 2007 by Zadeh and Alex Mehr.

Jobvite has raised $8.25 million from ATA Ventures and CMEA Capital.  Thus far Jobvite raised $15 million total.  Jobvite is basically a recruiting website with a major focus on social networking.  Jobvite faces intense competition from LinkedIn which is the dominant social network.

Jobvite designed eRecruitment application software for people to send targeted job invitations for friends in social networks.  Invitations can be sent to friends on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Microsoft Outlook.  Jesper Schultz is the founder and chief Jobvite.

“This recession is fundamentally changing recruitment, pushing companies to become more cost-effective, innovative and strategic. Companies are looking to the technology industry to make this possible,” stated Jobvite President and CEO Dan Finnigan. “Our growth this year proves we’re serving a big need and delivering immediate ROI to our customers. With this new investment, the strong additions made to our team this year, and the on-going advancements in our technology, I’m looking forward to what Jobvite will do for our customers.”

“We have quickly become the dominant player in the social dating space and we plan to continue to rapidly expand our user base across even more social networks,” stated Shayan Zadeh, a co-CEO at Zoosk and former program manager at Microsoft. “We allow people to seamlessly connect across multiple social networks, for example a Facebook user can interact with a MySpace user, and this ability has given us unprecedented access to today’s young, single professionals. Our new funds will allow us to expand our network of subscribers and add even more new features that will make the social dating experience even more fun and less painful.”

Zoosk, a dating social network based in San Francisco, Calif. has raised $4.1 million in it’s second round of funding recently.  The $4.1 round of funding was led by Canaan Partners.  ATA Ventures also participated in this round.  Zoosk is built around application widgets that help users connect based on interests and preferences.

The company was started in 2007 and receives roughly 400,000 daily uniques, 1 million messages sent per day, and 3 million dating profiles on Zoosk network.

Zoosk has plenty of competition.  The funding new comes shortly after WooMe, a video dating social network raised $12.5 million.  Match.com has also created an application of their own called Little Black Blackbook: Are You Interested?  On Facebook alone, there are over 1,745 Dating Applications.  So clearly a dating application is not unique.  Fortunately for Zoosk, they have the user numbers to back up the quality of their app.

Information Source:
[1] Zoosk Press Release via PR Web