Startup profile for Pinterest: latest funding, latest known valuation, total disclosed funding, investors, status, sources, and why the company is interesting. Part of the Venture Capital Tracker startup directory.
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Pinterest funding, valuation and investors

Visual discovery and bookmarking platform for ideas, shopping, and planning.

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Funding, valuation & investors

Answer-first snapshot

Latest funding

Series A

$10M · 2011

Latest known valuation

Not publicly disclosed

Total disclosed equity funding

$37M

Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.

Current status

public

public · San Francisco, California, USA

Investors in latest funding

Lead: Bessemer Venture Partners

Sources: latest funding Last verified: 2026-07-25

Overview

Pinterest lets users discover and save visual content ('Pins') organized on boards for recipes, fashion, home, and shopping inspiration. Founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp, it monetizes via shoppable ads and affiliate commerce. Andreessen Horowitz led Series B ($27M, Oct 2011) after Bessemer's Series A. Pinterest IPO'd on NYSE (PINS) in April 2019.

Why Pinterest is interesting

a16z led $27M Series B (2011) before Pinterest became a public visual search engine — rare consumer social bet that reached NYSE: PINS.

Product & use cases

Pinterest combines social bookmarking with visual search and shopping ads. Users pin content from across the web; advertisers reach high-intent planners researching purchases.

  • Planning weddings, home remodels, and meals via visual boards
  • Brand advertising to high-intent shoppers
  • Visual search for similar products
  • Creator and merchant catalog distribution

Key facts

  • Series B (Oct 2011): $27M led by a16z — TechCrunch
  • Series A (2011): $10M led by Bessemer
  • IPO (2019): NYSE PINS

Funding history (newest first)

Series A

2011 $10M

Source: https://www.bvp.com/memos/pinterest

Series B

2011-10 $27M

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/07/pinterest-raises-27-million/

Investors in our directory

Funds linked from Pinterest's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.

Andreessen Horowitz Bessemer Venture Partners

Competitive landscape

Edge: Intent-rich planning context differs from scroll-feed social; lower toxicity profile attracted brand advertisers.

Pinterest occupies niche between social and search with differentiated user intent. Growth tied to international expansion and shopping monetization vs TikTok/Instagram time competition.

  • Instagram direct

    Visual social and shopping features from Meta scale.

  • Google Images adjacent

    Visual search incumbent.

  • Amazon adjacent

    Competes for shopping ad budgets.

Notable stories

  • Pinterest grew slowly for years before exploding — a16z's 2011 Series B preceded mainstream adoption by several years.

Industries

Consumer Media & Entertainment Marketplaces

Market / IPO context

Ticker: PINS (NYSE)

IPO status: public

IPO date: 2019-04-18

Editorial / static context — not a live quote.

FAQs about Pinterest

Practical answers founders, operators, and investors typically search for.

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where users save and organize images and videos as Pins on boards.
Andreessen Horowitz (/fund/andreessen-horowitz) led Series B ($27M, 2011). Bessemer (/fund/bessemer-venture-partners) led Series A.
April 2019 on NYSE under ticker PINS.
Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp.
Pinterest focuses on planning and inspiration; Instagram on social feed and creators.
Public company — see latest PINS quarterly reports.
Primarily advertising — promoted Pins and shopping ads to users with commercial intent.
PINS on NYSE.
Often categorized as visual discovery/search with social features rather than friend-graph social media.
Early consumer bet on visual bookmarking at scale before product-market fit was obvious.
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By Venture Capital Tracker

Last updated:

Editorial note: AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.