Back in the pre-crash days of the dot-com revolution, it was possible to tell which technologies and sectors were hottest by keeping track of where venture capitalists and financial institutions invested their money. These days, all the buzz seems to be around social networking, and investors seem to be willing to put their money where their buzzers are: Facebook application developer Slide has managed to raise $50 million in a round of institutional financing. Slide develops some of the most popular software applications/widgets used on social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace. The company’s best known applications include FunWall, SuperPoke, and Top Friends.
The San Francisco-based company currently has about five dozen employees, and is headed up by 32 year-old Ukranian-born Max Levchin. Slide plans to use the money to expand Slide to about 100 employees and expand development on MySpace as that company opens its platform.
Slide was founded in 2005 with backing from Levchin and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Early financing came from venture capital funds. Although Slide hasn’t disclosed the names of its new investors, reports and industry insiders are consistently saying T Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments are the most likely sources of Slide’s new money.
