The startup's applications have popped significantly in the past six months. In November 2010, it had 200,000 users.
As such, a slew of investors were apparently eager to participate in the financing round. Pulse opted to work with New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Greycroft Partners and Lerer Ventures.
"More than the money, it was the opportunity to work with three terrific firms that are all complimentary," says Pulse co-founder Akshay Kothari on the company's selections. "Alan [Patricof] and Ken [Lerer] were part of the original team who financed the Huffington Post, and we look forward to leveraging the insight they gained from building a new paradigm in news."
Pulse, initially built as a class project at Stanford, has matured into a fully-fledged company over the course of the past year. The 10-person team has been focused on optimizing Pulse's interaction design. Its efforts have been rewarded with a placement in Apple's App Store Hall of Fame.
Pulse plans to hire aggressively and start pumping out more features. Currently on the road map, says Kothari, are enhancements to the newly released read-later Pulse.me product. Users can expect ways to save stories they find via friends or outside of the applications. Pulse will also be weaving in features that help users better connect with each other around the news-reading experience.