Tumblr raises $85-million in funding from the likes of Richard Branson

Blogging platform, Tumblr, has raised US$85-million worth of funding reports the New York Times.

The fresh round of funding is led by venture capitalist firms Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners and includes cash injections from Peter Chernin’s investment business and English billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

Tumblr was founded in 2007 by David Karp and now has more than 29.9-million registered blogs. Karp said in a news release that the new funding would allow the blogging company “to continue to scale our business and give real focus to the further development of Tumblr.”

The company has raised roughly US$40-million in funding to date.

“Tumblr has grown into a revolutionary service for self-expression that is changing the social landscape around the world,” said Deven Parekh of Insight.

“We’re excited to be a part of the future of the company, and to include Tumblr among our list of investments that, like Twitter and Flipboard, are fundamentally changing the social paradigm on the Web,” he said.

Tumblr generates close to 40-million daily posts with a grand total of more than 10-billion posts since its inception.

“From the early users signing up to easily share all of the things they cared about, to the global community today… it’s been a remarkable four years,” Karp said.

Karp also believes that Tumblr’s growth rocketed in the past year. The service attracted popular stars such as Lady Gaga which saw its traffic jump to 13-billion page views per month from 2-billion.

The staff at Tumblr has grown to 50 from 15 in the early days and according to Karp, the startup is working on its “biggest project to date”. He would not, however, divulge further details.

“It’s amazing how quickly it’s become part of the fundamental infrastructure of the Web,” Greylock partner John Lilly said of Tumblr.

“We see some of the same early dynamics in Tumblr that led us to invest in Facebook, Pandora, and LinkedIn, so are very excited to add Tumblr to that list.”

Tumblr was ranked 22 on the Business Insider’s list of the 100 most valuable startups with an US$800-million valuation.