Blekko has both reduced its staff and raised new funding.
According to a report from Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land, who had an email exchange with CEO Rich Skrenta, the company laid off eight people earlier this week as part of a cost-reduction effort, but Skrenta reportedly said, “blekko’s revenues are growing and these cost reductions will help us as we work toward profitability.”
Skrenta also reportedly told Sterling that blekko has closed a a new $6 million round of funding, bringing its total funding to $60 million.
Last week, blekko announced the launch of a new redesign, which leverages the API the company built for its mobile app izik, and breaks down search results into categories, as well as providing more results per page.
“Blekko’s new search results page will move away from the standard search result status-quo and introduce a remodeled homepage with an innovative new way to display results,” a spokesperson told WebProNews. ”This new design will break down the spam-free search results into categories that will make it easier than ever for users to sift through human-curated content. The shift away from the customary 10 link search result archetype is the next big step for Blekko.”
Blekko says its user base is up to 12.5 million, with 5 million searches a day.