This means Outside.in has raised over $12 million in total funding since the company launched in 2007. After the jump is the full press release from the company:

BROOKLYN, NY (December 8, 2009) – Outside.in (http://www.outside.in), the leading hyperlocal content and advertising platform, today announced the close of a $7 million B round of financing, led by Union Square Ventures and including CNN Worldwide, one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information as a strategic investor. The round includes all previous venture investors, including Village Ventures, Betaworks, the New York City Investment Fund and Milestone Venture Partners, as well as continued support from a strong group of angel investors.

“In our opinion, there has never been a better time to build a new business in local media. This round represents a huge vote of confidence from our investors and CNN Worldwide that they agree and believe our results and approach are positioned to win,” said Mark Josephson, CEO of Outside.in. “The continued support of our investors shows our proven track record and their confidence that we will continue to focus on delivering huge value for all participants in the local media ecosystem—consumers, publishers, bloggers and advertisers.

Said Fred Wilson, principal at Union Square Ventures, “Local media is undergoing a radical reinvention and Outside.in is at the center of it, providing readers, advertisers, publishers, and bloggers the tools they need to make local news and information more relevant and profitable. Outside.in’s reach has grown 500 percent in the past year, showcasing the power of this new model.”

As part of its investment, CNN Worldwide entered into a concurrent multi-year deal to use the Outside.in for Publishers aggregation and curation platform to power hyperlocal news across all of CNN.com and its related properties. The first implementations are expected to be completed in Q1 of 2010.

“We are proud to have partnered with Union Square Ventures, Betaworks, and others to support Outside.in during the next stage of its business evolution, as the company continues to build an industry leading platform serving the hyperlocal market,” said Estenson. “Our strategic investment in this company and the hyperlocal platform they have built demonstrates our commitment to delivering a strong local news offering to our users.”

The funding round comes after a year of significant milestones for Outside.in.

More than one hundred media partners around the country now use the Outside.in For Publishers platform, including the New York Post, Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) Local, Media General (NYSE: MEG) and Chicago Tribune

Traffic to the Outside.in Network has grown to nearly 6 million monthly unique visitors

More than four thousand local bloggers use Outside.in’s distribution, geo-tagging and mapping tools

The funding will be used to support the continued development of the Outside.in platform for local content and advertising.

In this round, Liberty Associated Partners, WMG Investments, and Greycroft participated.  Takkle allows athletes and coaches to upload photos/videos/blogs/profiles on the social network.  High school athlete statistics can also be added to profiles.

Takkle athletes can also create “Takkle Sheets.”  Takkle Sheets are like a sports resume that athletes can use to  promote themselves to be qualified for professional and college leagues.  Takkle is based in New York.

I read an article tonight on alarm:clock^[1] about the social network receiving an investment from Sports Illustrated and as I investigated more, I found that were other investors in the company as well:

Investors in TAKKLE include:
1.) Sports Illustrated (SI.com): This publication is dubbed as the “biggest weekly American sports magazine” according to Wikipedia. The publication has over 3 million subscribers and 23 million adults read the magazine each week. The company is owned by Time Warner.
2.) New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF): is a company that was founded by Henry R. Kravis. Kravis is known as the 107th most richest person in the world and for founding Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). KKR registered to go public on July 3rd according to Hoovers. Ironically, I was reading a book about KKR’s involvement with RJR Reynolds and Nabisco in the book, Barbarians at the Gate earlier today.
3.) WMG Investments: Finance arm of Wasserman Media Group, LLC (WMG). WMG is a sports marketing company that was started by Casey Wasserman. Wasserman graduated from UCLA with a major in Political Science and is now also an owner of the Los Angeles Avengers football team.
4.) Greycroft Partners, LLC: A $75 million powered company founded by Alan Patricof. Patricof completed a BA from Ohio State University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon and is a board member of New York Small Business Venture Fund and New Jobs for New York Association. Greycroft has also invested in PaidContent (technology news blog), Pump Audio (hub for independent artists to sell music), and Ladies Who Launch (social network for entrepreneurial women).
5.) IJ Smith Enterprises LLC
6.) Jack Schneider, Managing Director, Allen & Company

Through the investment by Sports Illustrated, a partnership has been solidified. Sports Illustrated agreed to bring about sponsorship programs for TAKKLE endorsed by companies such as Gatorade and Finish Line. TAKKLE also made a deal with Spalding for a three-on-three basketball competition.

Previous Pulse 2.0 TAKKLE coverage is available at: http://pulse2.com/category/takkle-inc/

References:
[1] Alarm:Clock: Time Inc’s Sports Illustrated Takes Stake In TAKKLE
[2] MediaPost Publications: SI Makes A ‘Deeper Alliance’ With Takkle