Eighteen months since its launch, social media site Upworthy announced the receipt of USD8 million as equity investment for the company, The investors were led by Spark Capital, Cantamount Ventures, Uprising and the Knight Foundation. Other angel investors who provided the seed money include New Media Ventures.

The funds would be utilized for the the expansion of its team, expand to other editorial areas, build the business and provide new technology for its user experience.

Upworthy's niche is the power to make videos to its users and allowing it to go viral, 

According to Upworthy co-founer Peter Koechley, "We think a number of these sections that we might want to delve more deeply into are sections that people may want to underwrite. If there's a real alignment of sponsor section on a particular topic, we find the best content in the world on that topic and draw attention to it better than anyone else can, and it's great for our partner in those cases. We leverage how to draw attention and they associate their brand with that."

The founders are toying with the idea to create verticals, the site still maintains a single stream layout for the meantime. Even if Upworthy is seeking to expand coverage of certain topics, the site does not plan to become a new source.