Twitter, the micro-blogging startup turned internet phenomenon, has just closed a huge investment round, which values the company at an eye-popping $3.7 billion, according to multiple reports.
Twitter has received a $200 million infusion led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the premier venture capital firms in the world, and a key early-stage investor in a little company called Google.
Kara Swisher at AllThingsD broke the news (again).
The new investment round reinforces Twitter is one of the most important communications companies in the world, often mentioned in the same breath as Facebook, the 800-pound social media gorilla which has about 10 times the valuation. On paper Twitter is now theoretically worth more than even The New York Times, whose parent company is publicly traded.
In the last year Twitter users sent 25 billion tweets and the company added 100 million new accounts. Twitter now employs over 350 people, up from 130 a year ago.
In a blog post, Twitter said that Tellme founder Mike McCue is joining its board along with David Rosenblatt, the former CEO of Google’s DoubleClick ad unit, who left the search giant last year. Tellme, a voice recognition company, was bought by Microsoft for $800 million in 2007. DoubleClick was bought by Google for $3.1 billion in 2008.
“The experience these new directors bring to Twitter, along with this renewed investment, will help us continue to grow as a company and business,” Twitter said in the post.
A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment beyond the posting.
The company had previously raised $160 million, which means that its total venture capital raise is nearing $400 million.
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