Reddit Inc. is reportedly raising between $150 million and $300 million in new venture capital funding on a valuation of $2.7 billion.

According to an unconfirmed report published Tuesday by TechCrunch, the round will be led by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., somewhat ironic given that Reddit was banned in China in August. Other investors in the round may include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator.

Founded in 2005 by University of Virginia students Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, Reddit bills itself as the front page of the internet. The site, a sort of amalgam between social networking a la Facebook and old-school online forums, was acquired by Conde Nast in 2006 before being spun off as a standalone company in 2011 on a $200 million valuation.

Conde Nast’s parent company, Advance Publications Inc., maintained a majority shareholding in Reddit when it was spun off, but exactly what percentage of the company Advance will own after the new venture capital round is not known.

Despite being a private company that does not disclose figures, Reddit is believed to have 330 million monthly active users over 150,000 subreddits. Those are topic-based forums within Reddit — for example, r/Technology is a forum that shares and discusses topics related to technology.

CNBC reported in July that the company brought in $100 million in advertising in 2017, a figure likely to be significantly bigger today. Public-facing traffic statistics indicate that Reddit remains highly popular. Alexa ranks the site as the 17th most popular in the world and the fifth most popular website in the U.S.

Reddit last raised $200 million on a $1.8 billion valuation in July 2017.

The site has not been without controversy, however. It has been plagued over the last three years with issues around fake news, deep fakes and its chief executive editing user content.

Photo: evablue/Flickr