Tumblr raises $85 million as growth continues

Microblogging provider Tumblr has raised $85 million in a new round of financing.

Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners led the financing round,
Virgin Group chief Richard Branson, along with Spark Capital and Sequoia Capital, also contributed to the round. Tumblr did not disclose its valuation, but the company said that it plans to use the cash to "continue to scale our business and give real focus to the further development of Tumblr."

Tumblr's $85 million in new cash is a major step up in investment for the company. Prior to this round, the firm had raised about $40 million in several different rounds of financing. Its last major round came last November when it raised $30 million From Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, among others.

Since its launch over four years ago, Tumblr has watched its growth rates soar.

Tumblr generates 13 billion page views each month. What's more, the company is closing in on 30 million blogs, and has seen over 45 million posts added to the site today alone. Recently, Tumblr announced that it reached 10 billion posts since its inception.

Nielsen earlier this month helped shed even more light on Tumblr's growth, saying that the company is an "emerging player in social media." In the past year alone, Nielsen said, Tumblr has nearly tripled its "audience."