Tencent led the academic social network and research portal's series C round, which brought its overall funding near the $35m mark.

US-based online academic publication platform Academia.edu has raised $16m in a series C round led by internet group Tencent that also featured venture capital firm Social Discovery Ventures, EdSurge has reported.

Academia.edu has built an online directory for academic papers that links to a social network for their creators, and it claims to host 23 million research papers.

The company recently introduced a mobile app and a paid subscription option that offers advanced search abilities and the chance to receive…