Twitter lands $400M investment from Russian fund DST Global

Twitter has raised a reported $400 million from DST Global, the investment fund led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. Twitter confirmed the DST investment on its blog, calling the funding "significant" but failing to specify the total; Bloomberg is reporting the $400 million figure, citing confirmation from a source with knowledge of the transaction. Twitter adds the funding will support efforts to innovate its microblogging platform, increase its staff and expand its services internationally.

Last month, All Things Digital reported Twitter aims to complete a two-stage investment round totaling $800 million, earmarking half of that total to cash out existing stakeholders like Benchmark Capital, Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. The combined $800 million round will value Twitter at $8 billion--the startup was valued at $3.7 billion in December 2010, when it received $200 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The Twitter funding announcement follows days after the company took a major step towards monetization by introducing advertiser-sponsored tweets directly into user timelines, promising special offers, exclusive content and announcements from brands, business and charitable organizations that Twitter users already follow. According to Twitter, Promoted Tweets will appear at or near the top of a user's timeline--like conventional tweets, the ads will appear in the timeline just once, and users may dismiss each promo with a single click. Twitter launched the initiative in partnership with brands including HBO, Groupon, Starbucks, Gatorade and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox.

Estimates suggest that between 20 percent and 40 percent of Twitter users follow a brand or organization. Still, many analysts believe Twitter could alienate some users by introducing sponsored content directly into their feeds. Twitter currently boasts more than 200 million registered user accounts and is on pace to generate ad revenues of $150 million in 2011, up from $45 million a year ago, according to research firm eMarketer.

For more:
- read this Bloomberg article

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