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Stealth startup Airtime raises $25M, buys Erly

The video startup founded by Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning announces the acquisition of a "new social platform for organizing and sharing your personal content."

Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning's new startup, Airtime, announced new funding and an acquisition.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Airtime, the video startup founded by Napster duo Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, announced today that it had closed a second round of funding and had purchased another startup.

The mysterious company raised $25 million, according to a TechCrunch report. The startup also announced the acquisition of Erly, a company founded in 2011 that claims to provide a "new social platform for organizing and sharing your personal content." Terms of the deal were not revealed.

Erly was founded by CEO Eric Feng, a former partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which led Airtime's round of financing. The acquisition was announced in a company blog that also mentioned a previously announced June 5 event in which the duo are expected to reveal more details about their startup:

We are also thrilled to announce the acquisition of Erly, a fellow KPCB company founded last year by product and engineering leaders from Hulu. Erly brings demonstrated consumer products expertise, video experience, and technical leadership to Airtime, and we couldn't be more proud to welcome the newest members of our family.

Few details have been revealed about Airtime, but last year TechCrunch reported that the project -- then apparently going by the name Supyo -- was a Web-based video chat service aiming to connect like-minded people. It promises to reveal more on June 5.

Airtime's existing backers include Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, SV Angel, Yuri Milner, Ashton Kutcher, will.i.am, Scott Braun, and Michael Arrington.

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