FAMILY-TREE website MyHeritage aims to put down commercial roots after raising $15m (£8.4m) to fund expansion,writes James Ashton.

Set up in 2005, MyHeritage has grown quickly because of interest in genealogy fuelled by TV shows such as the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?, which has featured actress Patsy Kensit, pictured, tracing her ancestors.

It wants to link together families in the same way that Facebook connects friends. MyHeritage already has 25m registered users, 260m personal profiles and 230m photos on the site.

The second-round funding was led by Index Ventures, which counts internet-TV service Joost and gaming website King.com among its investments. Accel Partners, an investor in Facebook, also took part, taking an undisclosed stake.

“Because of people’s fascination with their history and the growth in social networks, we believe and hope this can be a significant business,” said Saul Klein, a partner at Index, who will join the board.

Founder Gilad Japhet wants people to use his service to pool photos already posted on sites such as Flickr and Picasa.

Times Recommends

• Gazprom brands Ukraine 'a barbarian' in gas row
• Services sector raises fears over UK jobless
• Retailers surge as profits survive sales plunge