With all the Facebook IPO hype, Groupon and LinkedIn earlier this year, LivingSocial raising huge sums of money, and now Pinterest raising $120 million, AND Kayak going public and I’m losing track of the IPO and fund-raising pace as it seems anyone with a fresh idea and a smart phone app is Wall Street’s best friend again.
Maybe all that Federal Reserve funny-money has found a new home! We’re all going to be rich again! Awesome!
From Mashable -
UPDATE: Rakuten has confirmed that it has led a $100 million round of investment in Pinterest. Of the investment, Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani says, “While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining. We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.”
Pinterest is raising $120 million in a funding round expected to be announced Thursday or Friday morning, according to multiple sources. The investment, Pinterest’s third, places the two-year-old social bookmarking site’s valuation in the range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion.
AllThingsD reports that Japanese commerce giant Raukten is leading the round with a $50 million investment. Ben Silvermann, Pinterest’s CEO and cofounder, is reportedly still deciding what other financing offers to accept.
