Menlo Park, CA-based Homestead Technologies, a provider of ad-backed self-service Web-based publishing for consumers, completed a $17.5 million round of financing from a group led by Silicon Valley based venture firm IVP.

In addition to IVP, Global Retail Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson also participated in the round.

Homestead is a Web-based publishing platform that enables individuals and groups to create Web sites without the need to buy expensive desktop software. With this round of funding, Homestead said, it will continue to develop its publishing platform and expand its sales and marketing operations.

"One of the most important uses of the Internet today is personal or group Web publishing and the community this creates," said Geoff Yang, partner at IVP, which invested $12 million in this round. "Homestead has the platform which will help define these communities."

"Since our launch last year, Homestead has changed the face of Web publishing by giving consumers everything they need to easily publish on the Web," said Justin Kitch, CEO and founder of Homestead. "Additionally, we give advertisers the opportunity to go beyond the banner to reach their target audiences, and our co-branding partners an easy way to provide the Homestead platform to their communities."

This round of funding follows Homestead's recent introduction of a new Internet advertising model based on branded "Elements" from partners such as Rolling Stone Network, HotBot, Deja News, AccuWeather and VantageNet. Elements are the basic building blocks for creating Web sites using the company's Web publishing platform. Branded Elements drive traffic and promote an advertiser's brand, and can be any type of Web content such as search boxes or news tickers.