New funding values Twitter at $1 billion

Twitter, the free social networking and micro-blogging site, where users can send and read short messages, or tweets, is raising approximately $50 million in funding that will value the company at $1 billion.

TechCrunch, a blog that profiles startup companies, located just a short walk from Facebook and several other internet start ups in Palo Alto, California, said that Twitter chief executive Evan Williams told employees at a recent meeting that the company would raise around $50 million, although the final amount is yet to be finalised.

Twitter, the privately funded startup founded by Jack Dorsey in 2006, has raised over $57 million from venture capitalists since its inception in March 2006. Twitter was funded initially by Obvious, a creative environment in San Francisco when it was launched publicly in August of 2006.

Although the exact amounts of funding have not been publicly released, the San Francisco, California-based popular tweeting site was rumoured to have raised $2 million in a first-round funding from Austin Ventures.

Twitter's amazing success lured even more investors as the micro-blogging site is reported to be raising $ 35 million in funding from US venture capital firms Benchmark and Institutional Venture Partners in February, valuing the company between $200 million and $250 million.

Twitter had previously raised approximately $20 million in funding.