Twitter has raised around €68 million in funding from a group of investment firms which include Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Morgan Stanley.
Confirming the deal on the Twitter blog, co-founder Evan Williams said “it was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value. Twitter's journey has just begun and we are committed to building the best product, technology, and company possible. I'm proud of the team we've built so far and I'm confident in the future we'll build together.”
This latest round of funding now effectively puts the valuation of the micro blogging site at €685 million ($1 billion). The deal represents Twitter’s third and largest round of fund-raising. Since launching the site that has yet to define a revenue stream has raised €91 million in venture capital.
Some analysts estimate that Twitter will have anything between 25- 45 million users by the end of 2009.
Earlier this month, Twitter announced it is considering monetization options including targeted business advertising yet Williams has ruled out advertising appearing on the website before the end of this year.