Twitter Inc, the company behind the incredibly infectious micro-blogging site, has taken on $35 million in venture capital, saying it is now ready to begin building revenue-generating products.
“We are now positioned extremely well to support the accelerating growth of our service” Twitter said on its official blog, the day after it agreed to backing from Institutional Venture Partners and Benchmark Capital.
The business reportedly raised $5 million in 2007, and took on another $15 million last year.
Twitter said it had not actively been seeking more funding, and has enough operating capital to see it through. “Nevertheless, our strong growth attracted interest and we decided to accept a unique opportunity to make Twitter even stronger with a very attractive offer” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said.
People use Twitter to send to up to 140 character long messages or ‘tweets’. There have been persistent rumours among the estimated six million or so users of the site that it was only a matter of time before Twitter started charging companies to use its micro-blogging service.
It has made it clear today that following this funding round, the 29-strong business has what it needs to begin building revenue-generating products.
Twitter said Benchmark’s Peter Fenton will join the board of directors of the San Francisco-based company.
