Community platform receives funding from investors, Lady Gaga

Palo Alto, California-based Backplane announced it recently closed a Series A round of financing for an undisclosed amount. It received funding from five new firms, as well as continued participation from Google Ventures.

The investment was structured as a convertible note in order to create more flexibility for eventual Series B rounds that "could occur rather quickly," according to Econsultancy.

Backplane describes itself as a community platform that "unites people around interests, affinities and movements." It's intended to be a Facebook hybrid, combining calender, email and social networking features, as well as photo sharing and multilingual chat functions.

"We are thrilled to add an extraordinary group of investors and industry leaders who have helped pioneer game-changing technology businesses to our Series A," said Matt Michelsen, co-founder and CEO of Backplane.

Backplane's first community, called littlemonsters.com, was centered around pop star Lady Gaga. The singer was so impressed with the company's work that she invested around $1.5 million in the project.

Venture capital firms in Boston and elsewhere may believe there's room for a platform such as Backplane's, even with Facebook's presence. However, the news source notes that it also faces competition from similar products in the space such as Jive, Ning, BuddyPress and vBulletin.

KLR is one of the largest CPA firms in Boston, and offers assistance to venture capital firms. These include internal audit assessments as well as international tax services and specialized tax services such as cost segregation, research and development and energy studies. Due diligence for buyers and preparedness for sellers can also be provided during the acquisition process.