(Reuters) – Reddit Inc, which took center stage in a recent social media-driven retail trade, said Monday it raised more than $ 250 million in a new round of funding that doubled its valuation to $ 6 billion.
The social media company was valued at $ 3 billion after a funding round in February 2019.
“We decided this was the right opportunity to make strategic investments in Reddit, including video, advertising, consumer products and expansion into international markets,” the company said in a blog post. (bit.ly/3p37uC3)
Reddit Chief Executive Officer Steve Huffman told the Wall Street Journal it’s a good market for fundraising. (on.wsj.com/2N5U62)
“Valuations are currently very high. It never hurts to raise money when there is the opportunity to do so and Reddit had a strong year, ”said Huffman, according to the WSJ report.
Reddit, which has more than 50 million active users daily, said in the blog post that ad revenues were up 90% in the last quarter from a year earlier.
Video game retailer GameStop Corp and other companies, including movie theater operator AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, have seen wild swings in their stocks over the past two weeks as amateur investors on forums like Reddit’s WallStreetBets teamed up to buy up stocks that some US funds had bet against.
The meeting has caught the attention of regulators, although US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday it was too early to say whether new policies or regulations were needed to deal with the volatility.
Reporting by Rama Venkat and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Edited by Devika Syamnath and Shounak Dasgupta