Pinterest, the US-based social networking company backed by e-commerce company Rakuten, has entered talks over a $500m series G round, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.
The funding is set to be raised at a valuation of $11bn, more than twice the $5bn valuation at which Pinterest raised $200m in May 2014.
Pinterest operates an image-based social network through which users can form online scrapbooks aligned to their tastes, ‘pinning’ images to personalised ‘boards’.
The increased valuation is likely to be due to its ongoing growth – the site recorded a 37% year-on-year increase in visitors last month – and a business model that is moving towards recommended content and targeted advertising.
The series G funding will be used to strengthen that business model while also supporting growth in Asia and Europe.
Pinterest’s series F round brought its total funding to $764m since it was founded in 2009.
In addition to Rakuten, which invested as part of a $100m round in 2012, its backers include SV Angel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fidelity Investments, Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, Valiant Capital Partners, Slow Ventures and a raft of angel investors.