Reddit has raised $250 million and doubled its valuation to $6 billion following the GameStop trading saga

• Reddit has raised $250 million at a $6 billion valuation, it announced Monday.
• At its last valuation in 2019, Reddit was worth $3 billion.
• The fundraise follows Reddit's role in the trading frenzy of Gamestop and other "meme stocks."

Reddit has nabbed $250 million in funding, doubling its valuation to $6 billion, as it rides the r/Wallstreetbets wave.

Reddit told the Wall Street Journal the late-stage funding round was led by venture capital firm Vy Capital. The company's last fundraise was in February 2019, when it raised $300 million at a $3 billion valuation.

CEO Steve Huffman told the Journal there was a "good market to fundraise" at the moment.

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"Valuations are very high right now. It never hurts to raise money when there's an opportunity to do so and Reddit had a strong year," he added.

He did not mention Reddit's role in the mass trading of GameStop and other so-called "meme stocks," a story that dominated the news cycle after a group of Redditors banded together to buy heavily-shorted stocks.

In a previous interview with the Journal, Huffman said he supported r/WallStreetBets, the subreddit where the traders organized.

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The story generated huge interest in Reddit, and it has already cashed in on the publicity by taking out an ad during the Super Bowl.

The site had already seen an increase in users over the course of the pandemic. Reddit said in December that its daily active user numbers for October were up 44% year-on-year.

Huffman said Reddit planned to double its employee count to 1,400 in 2021, and that it would use the latest cash injection to develop video, advertising, and consumer products, as well as pursuing international expansion.