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CNET
Pinterest has raised $367 million in its latest round of financing, giving it a valuation of $11 billion and making the social discovery site one of the most valuable venture capital-backed startups.
The makers of the visual bookmarking tool confirmed the financing Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is looking to raise as much as another $211 million, a spokeswoman said, for a total of $578 million raised in the Series G round.
The new round more than doubles the $5 billion valuation Pinterest achieved when it closed a $200 million round of funding in May. The valuation, which makes Pinterest the sixth-most valuable venture-backed startup, would suggest investor confidence is strong in Pinterest’s ambitions of transforming itself from a scrapbooking site into a destination for discovering a wide array of products.
Pinterest, which boasts 70 million users, has seen its virtual clipboard business grow by helping people uncover unique items and websites for specific needs, such as the right dress or decorations for a wedding or the best recipe for a family meal. The suggestions are considered useful because they offer easy-to-digest context: article Pins offer headline and story descriptions, recipe Pins list ingredients and cook times, and product Pins list price and availability.
As part of Pinterest expansion plans, the startup announced last month that it was launching a service to help people cut through the noise when it comes to finding the right iPhone and iPad apps. Applying the same approach Pinterest uses for other “pinned” items, “app pins” let’s users search for apps and download them directly from the Pinterest app without ever leaving to go to the App Store.
The San Francisco-based startup, which launched five years ago this month, has raised $764 million to date. A Pinterest spokeswoman said some of the money raised has already been earmarked for international expansion. The number of international users grew more than 135 percent in 2014, the company said. Today, international users make up more than 40 percent of its user base, up from 28 percent in 2013.
