14 DAY TRIAL // Canvas, 4chan Christopher Poole's try at creating a website that is actually marketable, is growing steadily. While it's still in private beta, the startup just raised $3 million from Union Square Ventures, with all of its previous investors participating as well, to help it scale further and continue to develop the product, as it slowly lets more people in.
Union Square Ventures, the firm leading the round, confirmed the funding and provided an explanation for its trust in the burgeoning online community.
"We are big fans of communities at Union Square Ventures," VC Fred Wilson wrote. "Whenever we are presented with the opportunity to invest in an emerging new Internet community, we take it very seriously," he said.
"We were presented with exactly that opportunity a few months ago by Chris Poole, also known on the Internet as 'moot.' When Chris was 15 years old he launched one of the most powerful Internet communities, 4chan, from his bedroom," he added.
"Canvas is a real-time canvas on the Internet. It is a community where everyone can come to create imagery together," he explained.
Canvas tries to extract the essence of 4chan, or at least part of it, but also create an original community. The main focus is on creating funny or interesting images, through various means, and then building on them, remixing and mashing the original images in the way most internet memes are created.
The site makes it easier to not only create and modify the images, it has a built-in editor, but also provides the medium to spread them.
Canvas is still in private beta at the moment and, despite the big interest, it will continue to stay like this until both the site and the small, early community are ready.
The money should come in handy now that the site continues to grow, the startup is looking to hire more people and, as more users get in, it's going to take more money to support them as well.