Startup profile for Medium: latest funding, latest known valuation, total disclosed funding, investors, status, sources, and why the company is interesting. Part of the Venture Capital Tracker startup directory.
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Medium funding, valuation and investors

Online publishing platform for long-form writing, blogs, and member-supported newsletters.

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Funding, valuation & investors

Answer-first snapshot

Latest funding

Series C

$50M · April 2016

Latest known valuation

Not publicly disclosed

Total disclosed equity funding

$107M

Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.

Current status

private

growth · San Francisco, California

Investors in latest funding

Lead: Spark Capital

Sources: latest funding Last verified: 2026-07-25

Overview

Medium is an online publishing platform founded by Ev Williams (Twitter co-founder) in 2012. It hosts long-form articles, blogs, and newsletters with a membership model paying writers through the Partner Program. Medium raised a $57M Series B in September 2015 led by Andreessen Horowitz with GV and Greylock Partners participating, and a $50M Series C in April 2016 led by Spark Capital. The company has pivoted multiple times between open platform, publications, and membership-focused models.

Why Medium is interesting

Ev Williams's post-Twitter publishing bet — a16z led $57M Series B (2015), Greylock and GV joined, Spark led $50M Series C (2016). Still a reference for subscription media and creator monetization models.

Product & use cases

Medium provides a reading and writing platform with clean typography, discovery algorithms, and Medium Membership ($5/month) that distributes revenue to enrolled writers based on engagement.

  • Writers publishing essays and building audiences without running their own blog infrastructure
  • Readers subscribing to curated long-form content across topics
  • Companies and publications hosting branded Medium publications for thought leadership

Key facts

  • Series B (Sep 2015): $57M led by a16z; GV and Greylock participated
  • Series C (Apr 2016): $50M led by Spark Capital
  • Founded by Ev Williams (Twitter, Blogger co-founder)
  • Membership model pays writers through Partner Program based on read time

Funding history (newest first)

Series C

2016-04 $50M

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/25/medium-raises-50m/

Series B

2015-09 $57M

Source: https://blog.medium.com/meet-ev-57m-series-b-9dffa034ae73

Investors in our directory

Funds linked from Medium's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.

Andreessen Horowitz Greylock Spark Capital

Competitive landscape

Edge: Medium's brand and Ev Williams's creator-economy credibility gave it early writer adoption. a16z/Greylock/Spark syndicate funded scale before Substack proved newsletter-native monetization.

Publishing platforms struggle with creator retention — writers want audience ownership. Medium competes on discovery and simplicity while Substack wins on direct subscriber relationships. Membership model sustainability remains the core question.

  • Substack direct

    Newsletter-first creator platform with direct subscriber payments; took writers seeking ownership of audience.

  • Ghost adjacent

    Open-source publishing with membership; self-hosted vs Medium's centralized platform.

  • LinkedIn Articles incumbent

    Professional publishing inside LinkedIn feed; different discovery but overlaps on business writing.

Notable stories

  • Ev Williams founded Medium explicitly to improve the quality of discourse online after Twitter's brevity constraints — 'ideas over noise' was the original positioning.
  • Medium laid off roughly one-third of staff in 2023 and refocused on core membership — a retrenchment common among 2010s media platforms facing Substack competition.

Industries

Media & Entertainment Consumer

Related funding articles

Venture Capital Tracker pieces that cover Medium's financing or category context.

FAQs about Medium

Practical answers founders, operators, and investors typically search for.

An online publishing platform for long-form writing and blogs, with a $5/month membership that pays enrolled writers through the Partner Program.
Andreessen Horowitz (/fund/andreessen-horowitz) led the $57M Series B (2015). Greylock (/fund/greylock-partners) and Spark (/fund/spark-capital) also invested.
Ev Williams — co-founder of Twitter and Blogger.
Substack is newsletter-first with direct subscriber billing. Medium is a centralized platform with algorithmic discovery and pooled membership revenue.
September 2015 — $57M led by a16z.
Many articles are free; Medium Membership unlocks unlimited access and supports the Partner Program for writers.
Through the Partner Program — enrolled writers earn based on member read time on their stories.
Growth-stage private company post-Series C (2016).
No public profitability disclosure; company has undergone multiple layoffs and strategic pivots.
Medium remains a major publishing destination, though creator tools face competition from Substack, LinkedIn, and self-hosted platforms.
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By Venture Capital Tracker

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