Reddit raises $50 million in funding and shares it with some of its users

The so-called “front page of the Internet” has just secured around $50 million in its latest funding round. That’s all well and good, but the most interesting part is that the investors in this particular round look set to give 10 percent of their shares to the Reddit community, a neat gesture when you consider that without those users there’d be no Reddit.

Social news startup Reddit Inc. has raised $50 million in an unusual deal that would deliver some shares back to the site’s community. Y Combinator President Sam Altman, one of Reddit’s earliest and most passionate users, led the Series B round with participation from Alfred Lin of Sequoia Capital and Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz. Also participating were other well-known entrepreneurs and investors, including Peter Thiel, Ron Conway, Paul Buchheit, Jared Leto, Jessica Livingston, Kevin and Julia Hartz, Mariam Naficy, Josh Kushner, Calvin Broadus Jr. (also known as rapper Snoop Dogg) and Reddit Chief Executive Yishan Wong.