Instagram reportedly raised $7 million in Series A funding in February 2011.
The financing was reported on February 2, 2011, only a few months after Instagram’s public launch. The round was led by Benchmark Capital and included several prominent technology investors, among them Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca through his investment fund, and Adam D’Angelo, the founder of Quora.
The $7 million investment represented a major increase from Instagram’s earlier $500,000 seed round, which had been raised while the company was still developing Burbn. Reports said the Series A deal valued Instagram at roughly $20 million to $25 million, depending on the contemporary account.
The funding supported Instagram’s rapid expansion as it focused on simple mobile photography, filters, and social discovery. By June 2011, the service had reached 5 million users, and by September it had passed 10 million. The later April 2012 round was much larger—$50 million—and valued the company at $500 million, so those two financings are easy to confuse.