Photo-sharing and social media startup Twitter confirmed a long
rumored funding round, but as befitting a company that still has no
announced revenue model or official communications functions, it made
no announcement and confirmed no numbers.
On his
blog
however, Twitter founder Biz Stone revealed that Bijan Sabet of Spark
Capital and Jeff Bezos of Bezos Expeditions are now "members of our
investment team," and that Sabet will join the company's board. No
mention of investment was actually made at all, other than to note that
previous investors Union Square Ventures and Digital Garage exercised
pro rata rights to participate in the round. Guesses floating around
have put the size of the round at $15 million to $20 million, with a
valuation on the company of close to $100 million.
Though Bezos is mentioned as the founder of Amazon.com Inc., as well as
space flight startup Blue Origin, Stone clearly indicates the
investment is coming from his personal venture investment company,
without declaring it outright.
Stone's blog addresses the issue of the company's business model on;ly
in mentioning that the company plans to "become a sustainable business
supported by a revenue model." But he clearly indicates he is in no
hurry, emphasizing that the company's goal is to build a "global
communication utility" that is "robust and reliable," and that it has
plenty of private funding access to meet ambitious plans for hiring a
broad scope of technical and startegic professionals to get there.
-- Clifford Carlsen
See June 24 post from Biz Stone's Twitter blog
See June 24 post from Silicon Alley Insider
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