Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

Sequoia Set to Lead $500M Valuation Round for Instagram

The fact is, if you make a consumer Internet app that people actually use, you’re probably raising venture capital right now. So we try not to write about every funding round that’s in the works.

But some deserve the attention: It looks like Instagram is close to wrapping up a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital, according to several sources close to the situation.

Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom

The maker of the fast-growing photo-sharing app, which just made its way to Android, is set to receive $50 million at a $500 million valuation, the sources said. Others joining the round could include DST Global.

The Wall Street Journal had reported that some were skeptical that Instagram deserved a half-billion-dollar valuation without revenue to speak of, but there does not seem to be a lack of people wanting to get into the deal.

Instagram received Series A funding of $7 million led by Benchmark Capital just over a year ago. At the time, it had 1.75 million registered users.

The company had 30 million iPhone users before it came to Android this week, at which point it got more than a million new users in 12 hours.

Instagram, which just got its own office on San Francisco’s South Park, had 13 employees at last count. CEO Kevin Systrom declined to comment on fundraising.

(Image courtesy of JD Lasica on Flickr)

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik