LinkedIn pulls in millions more in funding

Professional social neworking site LinkedIn has announced that it has raised US$22.7 million in additional funding to warm it through the icy financial winter.

Previous investor Bessemer Venture Partners, and new investors SAP, Goldman Sachs and McGraw-Hill have all put some loose change in the kitty, which goes some way towards extending a previous round of US$53 million in funding completed in June.

The social networking site pointed out that the valuation of this new cash influx is slightly over US$1 billion, the same as the first round. It also brings the total amount of cash LinkedIn has shoved under the mattress to over US$100 million.

The money should help LinkedIn ride out the economic storm and even scavenge for cheap strategic assets along the way.

But despite the good news, LinkedIn probably knows it’s in for a tough time in the next year or so. Its biggest chunk of revenue – a cool US$100 million this year – comes from premium jobs listings and services to companies which are hiring. With more firing than hiring going on nowadays, those revenues are sure to take a bit of a pounding.

Also, the firm had announced it was preparing to launch its own ad network, but with the state of online ads at the moment, and their prospects for the coming year, LinkedIn may well find that idea is not working.

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