Pinterest, the popular image-bookmarking site, is engaged in talks to raise $500 million worth of funding in an attempt to increase the value of their valuation to $11 billion.
Consider this: The number of billion-dollar, privately held, incredibly popular mobile tech startups have doubled in the past year.
Pinterest's new funding round is planning on creating funds in the coming weeks. It's not clear if any new investor would join the round. Founded in 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp, and Paul Sciarra, Pinterest allows users to create online bulletin boards based on various themes such as travel, decorating, or sports.
The new funding would value the company at more than twice the $5 billion valuation last May when it raised $200 million. This infusion of more money will help the company keep pace with its growth spurt. The company signed a new lease last fall for more office space near its San Francisco headquarters to accommodate its growing head count, which totals more than 500 employees.
Pinterest is also looking to deepen its hold in Europe and Asia by developing a business model.
The company's unique visitor numbers in the U.S. reached an apex of 75.8 million in January, which is up by 37% from the same time a year earlier, according to comScore. Such widespread growth has encouraged the company to move forward with its moneymaking efforts such as testing new types of ads on the service—called promoted pins—that will help users find advertisements relevant to their overall experience.
With $764 million dollars so far from existing investors (SV Angel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fidelity, Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, and Valiant Capital Partners), Pinterest has plenty of possibilities ahead for the immediate future.
