Social networking newcomer Ello, which saw a massive increase in popularity last month after unintentionally serving as an alternative to those protesting Facebook’s controversial name policy, recently raised $ 5.5 million in Series A funding from Colorado-based venture capital firm Foundry Group.

The funding might come as a surprise to some given Ello’s stance on advertising and user privacy, namely in that it rejects the former and has vowed to protect the latter. Investors need to eventually see a return on the money they give to their startups. In order to provide that return, the past decade’s social networking startups have flooded their sites with advertisements and sold their users’ data to marketers.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here