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Japan's Rakuten leads $100m investment in Pinterest

Japanese online marketplace Rakuten is leading a $100m investment round in online content sharing service Pinterest.

Pinterest’s existing investors Andreessen Horoqitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital, as well as a number of angel investors, also participated in the latest round.

The funds will be used to improve Pinterest’s service offering and expand its community globally.

The investment also marks the beginning of a strategic partnership between Rakuten and Pinterest to help expand the service in Japan and across the 17 other global markets in which Rakuten is present.

“While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining,” says Rakuten chief executive Hiroshi Mikitani. “We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.”

Jenni Baker, London