The economy is tanking, no one really knows what’s going to happen, but micro-blogging service Twitter keeps growing in popularity. It might not have found a way to make money yet, but there’s enough confidence that it will that two Silicon Valley venture capital firms have pumped $35 million into the company, according to the Financial Times.
Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners put up the money, and Benchmark partner Peter Fenton has joined the Twitter board.
Last year Twitter turned down a Facebook takeover offer of $500 million, and the new investment would indicate that the company wants to go it alone.
Fenton said:
“They were not looking for money but, given their explosive growth, they decided to partner with an active West Coast syndicate to vigorously pursue the path of independence.”
Founded in 2006, Twitter will only says it has millions of users. In a blog note, co-founder Biz Stone wrote that users had increased 900% in a year, adding:
“We are now positioned extremely well to support the accelerating growth of our service, further enable the robust ecosystem sprouting up around Twitter, and yes, to begin building revenue-generating products.”
