US-based visual discovery startup Pinterest Inc has secured $200 million in a fresh round of funding, says a report by ReadWrite.com. According to a Techcrunch report, San Francisco-headquartered Silicon Valley Angel led this round, which also saw participations from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Fidelity, A16Z, FirstMark Capital, and Valiant Capital Partners.
With this round, Pinterest’s valuation reaches $5 billion.
Last October, Pinterest raised $225 million led by Fidelity Investments which valued Pinterest at $3.8 billion. Previously, Pinterest had bagged $100 million from Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten.
Founded in March 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra, Pinterest helps people discover things they love and inspire them to do those things in real life. A free-to-use platform, Pinterest allows users to upload, save, sort and manage images (known as pins) through collections known as pinboards. Pinterest also acts as a personalised media platform, whereby users’ content and the content of others can be browsed on the main page. Users can then save individual pins to one of their own boards using the ‘Pin It’ button. Users can personalise their experience with Pinterest by pinning items, creating boards, and interacting with other members.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)