A Media Company Devoted To Stories About Animals Just Raised $4.6 Million

The Dodo, a media company that's devoted to content about animals, announced today it has raised a $4.68 million Series A funding round led by Discovery, with participation from existing investors SoftBank Capital, Greycroft Partners and RRE Ventures.

"In the past, caring about animals has been dismissed as radical, or overly sentimental, but now it's really becoming an accepted movement," said Izzie Lerer, cofounder of The Dodo and the daughter of Buzzfeed chairman and Huffington Post cofounder Kenneth Lerer. "We couldn't be more thrilled and excited to be working with Discovery. There is no company that has done more to put animals front and center-they've made animals the focus as opposed to a fringe topic."

The startup, which was launched in January 2014 by a team including Lerer, raised a $1 million seed round in September 2013, led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with participation from SoftBank Capital, Greycroft Partners, RRE Ventures and others.

The Dodo is the first media company built entirely on RebelMouse - another Lerer ventures startup. As Business Insider's Alyson Shontell reported in January, "This makes it easy for The Dodo to pull in cute animal posts from social media and takes pressure off The Dodo to produce original content, which is more expensive." Partnering with The Dodo is also ideal for Discovery - it gives Discovery and its affiliates access to a new target audience online.

Here's a sampling of the stories The Dodo posts:

The Dodo/Screenshot

Disclosure: Ken Lerer is an investor in Business Insider through Lerer Ventures.