Tumblr Lands "Very Big And Competitive" Round From Sequoia

Tumblr has raised a "very big and competitive" round of financing from top Silicon Valley VC firm Sequoia Capital, we've learned.

We're trying to track down more details, such as the size of the round, and other participants.

The NYC-based blogging startup's founder David Karp and president John Maloney went out to the Valley looking for money last month, and it sounds like they came back winners. 

"I will say, it is nice to be well-received on the West Coast," Maloney told us at the time.

Tumblr, a simple blogging platform, is now in an interesting spot.

It's big -- but not huge -- and is growing, with a strong brand and a loyal audience, but little to no revenue. But it faces increasing competition from the likes of Posterous. And Tumblr has not properly seized its opportunity in mobile, where new services like Instagram now pose a serious threat.

Tumblr raised $5 million from Spark and Union Square Ventures only last April. CTO and cofounder Marco Arment quit in September to focus on his side project, Instapaper.

Tumblr and Union Square Ventures reps declined to comment but did not offer denials.

Here's Tumblr's current Quantcast chart, showing some pretty nice audience growth.

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See Also:

• 10 Media People You Must Follow On Tumblr
• Silicon Valley VCs Take Turns Throwing Money At Tumblr
• Tumblr CTO Steps Down To Focus On Instapaper, Independent Career

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Sequoia And DCM Pour $20 Million Into Chinese Gilt

DCM and Sequoia Capital invested $20 million in Vipshop, a private sales company operating in China, the firms announced this morning.

Vipshop works on the familiar Gilt/Vente-Privee model, but for more mainstream brands. China doesn't have a huge market for high-end designer fashion yet. Instead, Vipshop offers brands like Nike and Adidas to China's massive new middle class. Ultimately, Vipshop hopes to use its own brand to begin introducing Chinese consumers to higher end labels.

More broadly, VCs like DCM and Sequoia are extremely bullish on Chinese ecommerce. The growth of the Chinese middle class has happened extremely quickly, and brick-and-mortar outlets haven't been able to keep up. Outside the centers of the countries biggest cities, there generally aren't physical stores that can offer the products Chinese want.

The $20 million round is actually a series A, but Vipshop is already fairly large, with around 700 employees. The money will go toward scaling up the companies infrastructure and making a big push in marketing and user acquisition.

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See Also:

• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Hey China, You're Not Going To Be Able To Police A Billion Phones
• Gilt-For-Indian-Fashion Site Exclusively.in Raises Venture Cash
• Mark Zuckerberg's Brutal Prank On Sequoia

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