Its been reported that Pinterest, the increasingly popular online bulletin board, raised $100 million in a financing round that values the U.S. start-up at $1.5 billion.
The funding is led by Rakuten, the largest e-commerce site in Japan, with participation from Pinterest’s existing venture-capital investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners as well as a number of angel investors.
In a statement, Rakuten said that the funding will allow Pinterest to continue improving its service and expanding its community globally. The investment also marks the start of a strategic partnership between Rakuten and Pinterest to help expand in Japan and into Rakuten’s 17 other global markets.
Pinterest is a social site where users can “pin” images and follow others’ collections has surged in recent months to become the 16th most-visited site in the United States, according to the Web information company Alexa.