Passado

The UK's largest business social network site raises USD $13 million to expand into continental Europe. Passado, the UK business social networking site rivaling the likes of LinkedIn, has secured financial backing from venture capitalists to formally launch in the UK. The site, the UK's largest business
networking platform, also has plans to expand further into Europe. It claims it currently has 5 million users in the UK.

Passado has been in operation for the last 4 years and was started by two friends who wanted to build a platform for friends and colleagues to reunite. Passado's financial deal was accompanied by figures that underline recent momentous growth. It published ComScore Networks calculated numbers showing that last October unique visitors reached 1.3 million, dramatically up from 287,000 unique visitors in October 2005.

Competition in the UK market is stiff but the site owners think they will continue to pick up momentum. The company's larger brother niche player in the UK is Friends Reunited which says it has 15 million registered users. Passado aims to play into the older-age market, which is considered a lucrative niche area in light of an expected tightening employment market. It offers blogging and photo sharing, but not yet jobs in London or other places in Europe.

The European market which the company has started to canvas is huge, with an estimated 300 million potential targets. Passado is headquartered in London and has specific plans to open in Russia and Italy in the near future.