Sugar, one of the most successful media companies for women-centric content, got $15 million in funding from Institutional Venture partners and Sequoia Capital, gathering a total of $46 million from the last 5 years’ funding rounds.  The money from the last funding session will be invested in “for brand extensions, acquisitions, and international growth.”

In 2010 Sugar made a few small but important acquisitions, buying out MyPerfectSale, a startup that owns MyPerfectSale, which sends e-mail alerts to its members about the “latest sales for high-end designer apparel and accessories,” as well as DesignerApparel, which aggregates designer items for sale on various sites around the pweb and FreshGuide, a startup offering daily deals in four markets targeted at women.

“On the eve of our five-year anniversary, Lisa and I are proud of the success and rapid growth we have demonstrated to date,” said Brian Sugar, founder and CEO of Sugar. “In the last year we achieved significant milestones, including growing our audience to over 20 million unique visitors per month, driving over $250 million in commerce to our partners, and reaching profitability for the full year. We are excited with the opportunities ahead of us as we continue to pioneer the combination of content and commerce.”

In an interview with Business Insider, Brian Sugar stated 2 months ago that it is very likely for Yahoo or AOL to buy out Sugar Inc, one of the few independent media brands that remained on the market after Huffington Post’s takeover by AOL.  It would be a purchase in line with either network, as they’ve both begun to build out media conglomerates, shifting their business models around web content and ads once again.  With its own ad network and expansive reach targeting some of the most influential consumers on the market, Sugar is indeed a tasty acquisition consideration.

According to Sugar Inc’s owner, his company ‘might actually cost more than HuffPo because it’s almost the same size, its readers are more ad-friendly (ladies who buy stuff!), and because Sugar has some ecommerce revenues to go along with its brand advertising sales.’

Sugar Inc. competitor Gawker Media is not on the hype as due to a recent website redesign its traffic of unique visitors has been considerably reduced.