What valuation did Rakuten's 2012 investment give Pinterest?

Rakuten’s 2012 investment gave Pinterest a valuation of US$1.5 billion.

On May 17, 2012, Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten announced that it was leading a US$100 million investment in Pinterest. Other participants included Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital. The deal valued Pinterest at US$1.5 billion and provided capital for international expansion and continued growth.

The investment was strategically important beyond its headline valuation. Rakuten brought deep experience in online retail and hoped to connect Pinterest’s inspiration-driven discovery model with commerce. Pinterest, meanwhile, was expanding rapidly: its mobile products were attracting users, and the service was becoming a major destination for collecting ideas, products, recipes, and images.

Readers sometimes confuse this figure with later Pinterest valuations. A 2013 financing round valued the company at US$3.8 billion, while a 2015 financing made the reported valuation US$11 billion. The US$1.5 billion figure belongs specifically to Rakuten’s 2012-led funding round, not to Rakuten acquiring Pinterest outright.