Twitter Gets Funding From Multiple Sources

Posted on August 4, 2007

Twitter, Inc., the company behind the popular microblogging and communication tool called Twitter, recently received an infusion of venture capital funding. Rex Hammond blogs that "all blog posts about Twitter getting funding should be limited to less than 140 characters" which is a good idea - unfortunately, this post is already well over the limit.

The amount of funding Twitter received was not disclosed. Twitter, Inc. has a post explaining its cash infusion. The company says, "First, Twitter was a fun side project, then it was cared for lovingly at Obvious until it was time to form Twitter, Inc. Today, we're excited to announce an important moment for Twitter. We've raised funding from our friends in New York City at Union Square Ventures."

Twitter, inc. also talks about meeting Fred Wilson: "From some of his early writing about Twitter we had a hunch Fred Wilson was someone we'd get along with. After we met with Fred and his team, we knew we wanted to work together. As Fred's written in his post about the news, Twitter is going to use this funding to grow our resources and focus on the important tasks ahead."

The company says it is also working with Charles River Ventures and mentions the following angels investors: Marc Andreessen, Dick Costolo, Ron Conway, and Naval Ravikant.

There are estimated to be 300,000 users on Twitter but this estimate has not been updated in two or three months. Recently, Twitter was where some people first heard about the Minnesota bridge collapse. The Los Angeles Fire Department is also providing updates on its Twitter account.

These are just a few of the many uses for Twitter. The Twitter Fan Wiki keeps a frequently updated list of news services, apps, mashups and other interesting Twitter tools and Twitter accounts. It will be interesting to see what new features and services Twitter adds down the road. The communication tool Twitter offers is what has made it so popular so quickly but ultimately Twitter may add more social networking features like profiles and compete with the larger social networks.