I think we are the first (at 5:49 am!) to pick up the news, broken this morning on paidContent, that Rafat & team have closed their first round of funding with Greycroft Partners, the investment vehicle of the premier venture capitalist Alan Patricof.

Congratulations to both Rafat and Alan!

Although admittedly a tad jealous, I think this is great news. Following on the heels of Om Malik taking funding from my good friends (and Automattic coinvestors) at True Ventures, this is another data point suggesting that, at least in the minds of a couple smart VCs, there is a real business to be built by professional bloggers.

(Warning: unpaid portfolio advertisement to follow). It also is pretty cool, for me, that both of these guys use the WordPress blogging platform…

And it is also great to see Om and Rafat to be two of the early guys taking capital and looking to do something serious.  In their own way both are leading the way in building "Web 2.0" publishing platforms that are leaving traditional print and Web 1.0 publishers in the dust.

Will have a toast to Rafat in NYC tomorrow night.