$100m pin money for noticeboard site

The quirky social networking website Pinterest cashed in on the "Facebook effect" yesterday with a fundraising that values the business at $1.5bn (£940m).

Pinterest, which lets users "pin" interesting items from around the web on to their pinboard for others to view, raised $100m just hours before Facebook was due to confirm the price for its float.

Pinterest was founded two years ago by Ben Silbermann, 29, a former Google staffer. The site, ostensibly named after the playwright Harold Pinter, has quickly grown to more than 20 million users.