Kit, a social media startup founded in 2013, raised $2.5 million in seed funding. The company’s official announcement states that it has grown tenfold in the past six months, and the additional funding will be used to continue to improve the community.
The funding round was led by April Underwood, Ellen Pao, Expa, Social Capital, Black Angel Tech Fund, Authentic Ventures and Precursor Ventures.
The company will use the funds to build the community and improve its services.
Kit is a unique social media site which offers tools that allow the community to review products and provide kits, or a group of products together, that users can share with their followers. The company also allows users to insert their Amazon affiliate links into their reviews to make money off their reviews.
The company has received praise from the community.
An example of a current kit is provided via an expert filmmaker. The kit is a Canon 80D that reviews the standalone camera, lenses, tripods and other accessories that go along with the camera to provide the ultimate photography and videography kit for consumers.
Users can review products they’ve used, and build kits based on themes.
Kit doesn’t take revenue from users who sell products via affiliate sales. The company focuses on acquiring experts and influencers that review products and use their social media following to further promote Kit.
The company’s monetization process is still unknown. Kit aims to focus on user experience and growing its user base.
The funding will allow the company to experiment and test their business model. The company has stated that sponsorships and SaaS models are being experimented with.
The company is the brainchild of Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai and partner at Expa. Kit has been opened to the public for a little under a year after remaining in beta for six months.