CMI Marketing's CafeMom Raises $5 Million

According the company, the site is already quite popular: more than 65 million pageviews and 1.7 million unique visits in July, up from 23 million PV and 750,000 UV at the end of Q1.  These numbers are especially impressive, given that the site launched in November last year.  New York's CMI Marketing owns CafeMom, the latest in its portfolio of Mom-related properties (ClubMom being the other).  CMI was founded in 1999 by Andrew Shue and Michael Sanchez.

We're going to resist the temptation to scream "yet another sign of the top!", but we must confess that a profusion of venture-funded mom-networks does make us nervous.  One?  Sure.  Many?  Shivering in fear...

From VentureBeat:

CMI Marketing  gets its backing from Highland Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, who have supported the company for seven years, helping pump $50 million into the company — much of it coming during the last Internet boom... CMI has struggled, flirting at times with profitability. Women-oriented sites are experiencing robust growth, as noted in previous coverage.

CafeMom’s action comes from participation with in certain groups, for example “Stay At Home Moms” which has 16,000 members. Users offer tips and practical advice. Other popular groups are “Toddler Moms” and “Raising Boys.” The company says it expects two million unique users in August. Some of that traffic is being bought with advertising on search engines. This morning, when we searched for “social network mothers” on Google, for example, CafeMom was advertising on the right hand side.  MomJunction.com, a similar company, raised $1.5 million in a first round of capital.  Other backers of CMI marketing over the years were Himalaya Capital Ventures and Perseus.