Twitter confirms new round of funding

Yes, Twitter's megacash infusion is real. CEO Evan Williams confirmed on the company blog Friday that Twitter has raised a new round of investment from Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, and existing investors Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Benchmark Capital.

Williams says it's "a significant round." He didn't say just how close it was to the roughly $100 million that The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Nor did he say whether this values Twitter at $1 billion.

"It was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value," Williams wrote in the blog post. "Twitter's journey has just begun, and we are committed to building the best product, technology, and company possible. I'm proud of the team we've built so far, and I'm confident in the future we'll build together."

Before the end of the year, Twitter is expected to start rolling out paid corporate accounts to businesses that use the service for marketing, promotion, and customer service.

[atul_arora]

I am sure the exact amount will get posted on sec.gov site in the next few days. You can see the old funding amounts at http://sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&filenum=021-111781&owner=exclude&count=40

[1mickymar1]

It amazes me that certain internet sites get funding, and yet there are so many people without! I am not smashing twitter, as I too use it, it just surprises me.

<a href="http://www.lilyputts.com/gourmet-food-gifts">Michele</a>

[Spats30]

Still, unless the new Corporate Accounts bring in revenue high enough to turn a profit, then all the more funding won't matter. The only thing keeping this company afloat is the new investments. What this equates to is a legal Ponzie scheme, because eventually they won't be able to keep the new investors coming in, and the $1 billion evaluation today will be -$1 billion tomorrow.

[karlito636]

Here is a tool to calculate a website value(Calculated twitter value too):
http://www.how-much-is-my-website-worth.info/

[Harrison912]

I use Twitter mainly to socially market my safety and security web site so I'm always interested in what's happening there. Thanks, Caroline.

[hypermark]

For Twitter (and Twitter's investors), this makes a lot of sense if one assumes that they roll up the choicest portions of the third-party twitter ecosystem into their core (through M&A), refine their API approach to this newly aggregated/federated platform and then cultivate a deeper, richer ecosystem around same.

Then, when the tree needs a good "pruning" again, start the M&A process anew.

For more fodder on this one, check out:

Twitter Financing: Pruning the Garden with $100M Shears
http://bit.ly/1902st

Mark