Looking to expand its base of online "micro channels" and boost ad revenue, video production and distribution service Next New Networks Inc. has raised $15 million in a Series B funding co-led by Goldman Sachs and Velocity Interactive Group.

Previous investors Bob Pittman, Saban Media Group and Spark Capital also joined in the funding round. The start-up raised $8 million in a Series A financing one year ago.

The company has 12 micro channels, or video-focused sites, each of which focuses on specific topics and has one or more video programs.

The most well-known channel is Barely Political, which created the 'Obama Girl' video praising presidential candidate Barack Obama. Other sites focus on fashion, animation and automotive, among other topics.

The company produces many programs in-house and solicits some outside productions.

Next New Networks will use the funding to expand to at least double the number of channels and hire an advertising sales force, according to Chief Executive Herb Scannell, who previously was an executive with MTV Networks.

The company has done some advertising deals but expects to ramp up with the new funding, Scannell said 'Advertisers understand that speaking to communities is valuable,' Scannell said. 'That is what the Internet does better than anyone else: create communities united by a common interest.'

The company has had an increasing audience and had 100 million views in 2007, Scannell said.

Despite the need for big viral hits to gain visibility in this crowded space, Scannell said, the company is broadly positioned in a number of different topics to be less reliant on individual hits.

The company, with about 30 employees, is also attempting to get its content distributed as widely as possible, having just announced a deal to distribute about 2,000 episodes of shows to AOL LLC'S AOL Video.