Flipboard has confirmed to us that it has raised $50 million, two days after we first reported that the company had authorized the shares earlier this year. JP Morgan was the sole investor, the company says. “We raised this round with JP Morgan, one of the best institutional investors in the world. They are a fantastic team to have on board,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
The funding will be used to build out the product and team, the company said.
TechCrunch reported earlier that, according to a regulatory document filed in Delaware, Flipboard had authorized the sale of $50 million worth of Flipboard shares at the same price as its previous funding round.
Flipboard didn’t provide valuation for the round. According to the filing, the valuation in the most-recent round could range from $800 million to $1.32 billion.
The raise comes at a time when rumors cropped up that Twitter might buy Flipboard — though, to be sure, it’s not exactly clear how far those talks progressed — and had held discussions with other companies like Google and Yahoo.
The company also provided some updated numbers on usage. It now has 72 million monthly active users, with the vast majority of that coming from mobile devices. Earlier in July, it was reported that the company’s numbers had jumped 75 percent in the last six months to 70 million on the back of web-user growth. The company said it sees anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000 activations every day around the world.
Flipboard’s funding will also help in stiff competition from new entries like Apple News. The bigger question is how and if an independent company — and Flipboard is not the only one in this boat — can continue to grow in the face of competition from a platform giant.
