According to The New York Times, Reddit announced on Monday that it had raised $250 million in new funding, valuing the social news start-up at $6 billion as it aims to turbocharge user growth and double its work force.

The investment is a shot in the arm for Reddit, which since 2005 has focused on building digital communities around topic-based message boards. The latest funding, led by Vy Capital with participation from previous investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Tencent Holdings, doubles Reddit's valuation from its last financing in 2019.

reddit was founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in 2005, and is an online community where users submit, vote, and comment on content, stories, and discussions. The hottest stories as determined by the community through discussions and voting rise to the top of the site, while cooler stories sink. Anyone can create a community (called a 'subreddit'); each subreddit is independent and moderated by a team of volunteers. reddit is open source, and community members are constantly tinkering and contributing features and translations back to the site. In October 2013, reddit received more than 4.9 Billion page views and 85.9 million unique visitors. In addition, reddit also hosts the world's largest gift exchange as listed in the Guinness Book of World Records through redditgifts.com, and features video and original programming through reddit.tv.