On Wednesday, search engine startup Blekko received $30 million in funding from various investors including Yandex, Russia’s top search engine. Trailing only behind Google, Bing, and Yahoo, Blekko is the fourth largest search engine in the US. With its motto “slash the web,” Blekko strives to provide search results that lack the spam and content farm pages that are often found in the dominant search engines.
The cash infusion combined with the resources offered by Yandex should help blekko move closer to its goal of obtaining one percent of all US search traffic. Blekko’s CEO Rich Skrenta commented:
“Yandex is a partner and investor that shares our mission of making search the best experience it can be. Having access to one of the world’s top pools of search talent and the fantastic products they have built will help us grow Blekko in the U.S.”
Blekko is hopeful that the funding and access to Yandex’s extensive search index and technology infrastructure will help to improve long tail and obscure searches and expand its market share.
Yandex Arkady Volozh, Principal Founder and CEO of Yandex, will sit on Blekko’s board. Volozh recently stated, “We love blekko and think it’s a great product — a quality search engine that organically combines search algorithms with expert opinions.” Russian search engine Yandex is the largest in Europe and has over 20 years experience building its core search technology.
Since launching in 2007, Blekko has secured a total of $54 million in funding. Although many search startups have tried to take on Google and failed miserably, Blekko remains a growing force in the US search market. While its search volume pales in comparison to competitor’s, the new round of funding and alliance with Yandex sends a message to the other major players that Blekko may slash away a little more of their search volume.
