George S. May Business Blog

Twitter to raise $100 million

Word on the street is that Twitter, the uber popular, social-networking phenomenon, is about to come into a whole lot of cash. Between investments from mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price and private-equity firm Insight Venture Partners, Twitter is looking at bringing in close to $100 million in venture capital. Not bad for a company that isn’t bringing in any real revenue!

From WSJ:

Twitter, the messaging web site that has become an Internet sensation, is nearing a deal to close as much as $100 million of new funding from as many as seven investors, according to people familiar with the deal.

The investor group includes mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price and private-equity firm Insight Venture Partners, which are new investors to Twitter. The $100 million investment is about twice as much as Twitter was reportedly expected to haul in this latest round of fund-raising.

Other investors in this round include venture-capital firms Spark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners, which have previously invested in Twitter.

The investors are valuing Twitter, which has yet to generate revenue or finalize its plans for making money, at about $1 billion. A person familiar with the deal said investors are applying a similar value to Twitter as that applied to Facebook, which at one point was valued at $15 Billion. By some estimates, Twitter is expected to have 25 million users by the end of 2009. Facebook has 300 million users.

Twitter could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Twitter valuation is quite a lift from the company’s last round of investing earlier this year, in which investors valued the company at around $255 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company still isn’t generating any real revenue, though executives say they are discussing various options, including advertising and premium services targeted at businesses.

The deal is expected to close today. It is Twitter’s third and largest round of fund-raising.

Related posts:

1. Twitter users sending over a billion tweets monthly According to Royal Pingdom, Twitter users are sending over one billion tweets each month. January saw more than 1.2 billion tweets, or 40 million per...


2. Chegg.com rakes in $57 million for textbook rental site Recession? Slouching economy? I bet Chegg.com would tell you differently. “Chegg.com, an online textbook-rental company, said it has raised $57 million in venture capital, in...


3. Serious Materials grabs another $60 million for Green Building Materials The green-building materials company, Serious Materials, announced today that it raised $60 million in its third round of funding, representing one of the largest US...


4. Google Ventures set put $10 million into biotech Google is said to be putting their venture capital fund, Google Ventures, to use as reports circulate that they are getting set to put an estimated $10 million...


5. Post Office to Raise Stamp Rates The U.S. Postal Service has had a rough few years of financial insolvency, which has decimated clientele and destroyed any modicum of profitability the service...