SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Minted ( www.minted.com ), the global design community and e-commerce site, today announced that it has completed a $5.5 million Series B round of venture funding led by Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital, with IDG Ventures and Menlo Ventures also participating. The new capital, which adds to Minted's Series A funding from IDG Ventures in 2008, will be used to enhance recruiting efforts and to support growth opportunities, starting with new product lines.

"Minted is one of the web's most successful community-sourced design businesses, with broad appeal among mass affluent consumers and revenue growing several hundred percent per year since 2008," said Mariam Naficy, CEO and Founder of Minted. "We are thrilled to have attracted top-tier investors who recognize our unique ability to serve the rising design consumer as well as the best graphic designers in the world. Peter's deep experience investing in community-driven businesses will be vital to our mission."

Minted is a global community of independent graphic designers and an e-commerce site that prints and sells the best of their designs in the form of paper goods such as holiday cards, wedding invitations, notebooks, and calendars. The community curates Minted's assortment by voting to tell the company what to sell. Designers earn cash prizes and commissions on the sales of their work, build their reputation and exposure, and receive helpful design critiques from the Minted community.

"Minted immediately grabbed our attention as a business that could scale - they combine two powerful forces, the creative power of an online design community and the aesthetic needs of mass affluent females," said Peter Fenton, General Partner at Benchmark Capital. "It was the team, above all else, that stood out to us. Mariam, Niniane, and Melissa exude excellence in everything they do."

"Minted is a remarkable e-commerce company, led by a remarkable entrepreneur. We are delighted to have been a backer of the company for the last three years," said Alex Rosen, Managing Director at IDG Ventures.

In addition to the institutional investors, Marissa Mayer of Google and Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp participated in the round as angel investors.

About Minted: Minted is a venture-backed design community and e-commerce site, crowd-sourcing graphic designs and content from a global design community and selling those as premium printed paper products initially focused on the $10 billion stationery, invitations, and cards market.

Minted has radically transformed what consumers now expect in holiday cards, wedding invitations, save the dates, birth announcements, business cards, and other personal stationery. The company's paper and printing is of the highest quality and it leads the market with the freshest designs, newest formats and most coveted details. Minted's fresh, unique designs have been featured on The Today Show and The Early Show, and in Real Simple, Town & Country, InStyle Weddings, Food & Wine and other major national magazines.

Key executives include Mariam Naficy, Founder and CEO, Melissa Kim, Co-Founder and SVP Weddings, and Niniane Wang, Chief Technology Officer.