YouNow, a “Live” Social Network, Raises $15 Million in Fresh Funding

YouNow, a four-year-old, New York-based social network that connects audiences and broadcasters in real time, has raised $15 million in new funding co-led by earlier backers Venrock and investor Oren Zeev, with participation from Comcast Ventures.

The company has now collected $30 million altogether from investors, including Union Square Ventures, which led its Series A round in 2013.

VCs are likely drawn to a number of YouNow’s features, beginning with the highly participatory nature of the platform. Specifically, the person being filmed engages in real time with his or her audience as they post comments to the site. More, unlike other live streaming services, there’s no limit to how long a YouNow broadcast can be. And the broadcasts can be watched — or fast forwarded, or rewound — up until a broadcaster starts streaming anew.

Perhaps it’s no wonder that YouNow is gaining momentum. Though he won’t share the number of users on the platform, YouNow founder and CEO Adi Sideman says the service is averaging 100 million user sessions a month and 150,000 live broadcasts a day. We asked him about those numbers and more in an email exchange last night.