US-based visual discovery startup Pinterest Inc. is in talks to raise $500 million at a valuation of $11 billion, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal , citing sources.
According to the report, the company plans to raise the funds in the coming weeks, but it is not clear if any new investor would join the round.
The new funding will more than double the valuation of the company from its last round, when it had raised $200 million at $5 billion valuation.
To date, Pinterest has raised a total of $764 million in funding from SV Angel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fidelity, Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, and Valiant Capital Partners. In October 2013, Pinterest had raised $225 million led by Fidelity Investments at a valuation of $3.8 billion. Previously, the company 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)