funding

Pinterest surprised Silicon Valley with the announcement overnight of a $100 million funding round led by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.

According to AllThingsDigital, more than $50 million of that sum came from Rakuten.

Why would Rakuten, which generated $4.7 billion in revenue last year, invest so much cash in Pinterest? According to TechCrunch, it may have a lot to do with Rakuten's interest in building its e-commerce business.

Rakuten offers user IDs similar to those from Amazon and Apple. Once people log in to a Rakuten or Rakuten-associated Web site, they can make purchases with the payment information … Read more

Last update: May 17 at 4:38 a.m. PT.

Pinterest has garnered investment interest from one of the world's largest Internet service providers, in a move that could value the social photo-sharing service at $1.5 billion.

Rakuten, which runs the largest e-commerce site in Japan, announced Thursday that it is leading a $100 million round of investment in Pinterest. Participating in the round are existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, along with an unspecified number of angel investors.

Rakuten's portion of the funding is in excess of $50 million, according to All Things D, … Read more

Bitly, a tech company known for URL shortening, looks like it's heading toward greener pastures and making more user products. The New York-based company is said to have raised about $20 million in funding, according to tech news site The Verge, citing multiple sources. This is double the amount the company raised in its previous round of funding.

"The link shortening has always been a bit of a Trojan Horse," investor Joshua Stylman told The Verge. "Bitly is really an analytics tool for tracking content across the open, distributed web, and doing it at a massive, … Read more

In order for venture-capital firms to invest in startups, they need funding from institutional investors. In many cases, such investors are happy to drop some cash in a fund. But a new study warns that doing so might not be the best idea.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, an organization that promotes entrepreneurship by investing in venture-capital funds, found things might not be as bright as some firms would have investors believe. In fact, the organization found that over the last 10 years, the vast majority of venture-capital funds have failed to outperfom the public stock market. In the last … Read more

Evernote has raised yet another funding round, $70 million on top of the $96 million it previously raised in several rounds. CEO Phil Libin confirms that the funding puts Evernote at a $1 billion valuation and prepares the company for IPO.

In a blog post announcing the funding, Libin reiterates his goal to build a "hundred year startup that can be everyone's second brain." He says the funding will be used for expansion, acquisitions, increasing the pace of product improvements, and international expansion. It's "not because we need the money to fund operations," he … Read more

AVOS Systems, the Internet venture started by YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, has closed a Series A venture capital financing round with some help from old friends.

Google Ventures led the Series A round, along with New Enterprise Associates, according to AVOS. Madrone Capital and China-based Innovation Works also participated in the financing. AVOS did not divulge how much it raised in the round.

Hurley and Chen made a name for themselves in the Web community back in 2006 when they sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion. In their new role as leaders of AVOS, they've bought social-bookmarking site Delicious from Yahoo. … Read more

Square has once again hit the road to woo investors and raise some cash, according to a new report.

According to All Things Digital, citing unnamed sources, the payments company is attempting to raise new capital at valuation as high as $4 billion. The publication didn't say how much cash Square wants to raise, but if the ATD report is correct, the startup's valuation has skyrocketed in the last year.

Back in June, Square raised $100 million on a $1 billion valuation. In November, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson gave Square even more cash, though the company did … Read more

Now we know why Facebook didn't build a good mobile app. It didn't have to. It could afford to pay $1 billion for a 14-person company, Instagram, that managed to figure out the secret sauce for winning over smartphone picture-takers. So, clearly, Path is next, right?

Not exactly. Path has a lot going for it, but it's lacking some key elements. It's a valuable company, but arguably over-valued given its recent funding news: A $40 million funding round from Redpoint Ventures (source: AllThingsD). Update 5:24 p.m.: Path said it has raised $30 million in … Read more

Third Point LLC, the hedge fund that owns 5.8 percent of Yahoo, is taking its case against the company's current strategy to the shareholders. Specifically, the fund is asking shareholders to vote in an alternate slate of directors in an attempt to oversee new CEO Scott Thompson as he struggles to turn the company around.

Yahoo snagged Thompson from eBay in January following last September's ouster of former CEO Carol Bartz. Co-founder Jerry Yang resigned shortly afterwards, while several board members announced that they would not seek re-election this year.

But those changes weren't enough to … Read more