Automattic, the US-based internet company best known for blogging platform WordPress, is raising between $100m and $150m in a venture round that would value the company at more than $1bn, Fortune has reported.
Automattic previously secured $29.5m from a 2008 series B round including media company New York Times, Polaris Partners, Radar Partners and True Ventures, and $1.1m from a series A round featuring online media provider CNET Networks, since acquired by CBS.
Investment firms Tiger Global Management and Iconiq Capital acquired $75m of shares from Polaris in September 2013, a few months after Tiger had bought $50m worth of shares from another prior investor.
WordPress is continuing to grow, and Fortune estimates it now powers 22% of websites across the world, due to the ongoing popularity of personal and commercial blogs.
However, Automattic may use the funds to diversify its offering in order to fend off newer entrants to the market such as Tumblr, which was acquired by Yahoo for $1.1bn in 2013, and Medium, which raised $25m from investors including Google Ventures in January. Automattic acquired long-form content app Longreads for an undisclosed sum last week.