• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 12, 2014

The Dodo is not extinct. Far from it -- the animal-obsessed, social media-driven content platform just secured a $4.68 million Series A funding round led by Discovery, along with participation from existing investors, including SoftBank Capital, Greycroft Partners, RRE Ventures, Sterling Equities and Bruce Wilpon.

Like BuzzFeed and other highly visual, socially steered properties, The Dodo is trying to find the right balance of serious and silly content. Combining animal rights activism with video of cats caught in paper bags attracted nearly 400,000 unique visitors in July, according to Compete.

Along with continuing to grow traffic, The Dodo plans to add native ad sponsorships and commerce partnerships -- but only those that abide by the company’s ethical guidelines, according to Izzie Lerer, The Dodo’s co-founder and editor at large.

“Our goal is to enter into advertising partnerships with brands that share our focus and mission,” Lerer said on Friday. “We want to form relationships with animal-centric brands and brands that make the well-being of animals a priority.”

It is worth noting that Lerer is also the daughter of Ken Lerer, managing director of Lerer Hippeau Ventures -- which is officially credited with giving birth to The Dodo. He is also co-founder of The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed chairman.

A few months before its official launch in January, the company raised a $1 million seed round, led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with participation from SoftBank Capital, Greycroft Partners and RRE Ventures.

Despite its cute content, benevolent mission and close ties to big backers, The Dodo's success is not guaranteed.   

Among other challenges, relying too heavily on social sharing has proven a risky strategy for some media properties. While Buzzfeed remains a big success by most measures, other sites, like Upworthy, have suffered from continued changes to Facebook’s News Feed algorithm.

The Dodo plans to avoid such pitfalls by relying less on Facebook and more on other social platforms, a company representative said on Friday.

Beyond its investment, Discovery is also partnering with The Dodo to share content and communities. The Dodo has an existing content and community sharing partnership with Huffington Post.

Plus, The Dodo is the first media company built entirely on RebelMouse, a social-centric content platform. Discovery Digital is also working with RebelMouse to test new ways to distribute Discovery's content and community across social, mobile and Web channels.