Monday, February 16, 2009

Spark Capital joins in Twitter’s $35M investment

By Galen Moore

Twitter Inc.’s fourth round of funding, first reported in January, is worth $35 million, more than doubling the company’s total investment, according to published reports. Boston-based Spark Capital returned to invest in the West Coast social microblogging company.

New investors Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners joined the round. Benchmark’s Peter Fenton will take a seat on the Twitter board. IVP’s investing general partner is Todd Chaffee. Twitter’s last round, in June, brought in $15 million, adding Spark and Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions. San Francisco-based Twitter’s total investment is now $55 million. 

Twitter has secured the funding without posting a dime in revenue. In a blog post Friday, company co-founder Biz Stone wrote that the startup will use its new funds to develop revenue models. “Throughout this year and beyond, our small team will grow much bigger to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead,” he wrote. Twitter currently employs 29.

In an interview published yesterday, Twitter’s new head of mobile business development, Kevin Thau, told Forbes magazine the company is looking at ways to make money by selling consumer analytics based on data from mobile users.

Spark general partner Bijan Sabet holds a seat on Twitter’s board of directors.