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Rizvi Traverse to Lead $250 Million Investment in Jawbone at $3.3 Billion Valuation

Low-profile big investor meets high-profile startup.

Jawbone

Jawbone, the maker of innovative consumer electronic devices such as the activity-tracking Up wristband, is poised to complete a new $250 million round of funding that values the company at $3.3 billion, according to numerous sources close to the situation.

Sources said the round, which was oversubscribed, could rise to $300 million.

The lead investor in the latest funding for the San Francisco-based company is Rizvi Traverse Management, which has become the go-to giant funder of high-profile tech companies of late, including Twitter and Square, among others. The investment firm is led by Suhail Rizvi, who is turning into the investing equivalent of Russian investor Yuri Milner except with a much lower profile.

Rizvi may join the Jawbone board as part of the transaction.

The rising valuation of the company, co-founded by CEO Hosain Rahman, has happened as the “wearables” category has exploded. Jawbone also sells the popular Jambox wireless speakers and noise-canceling wireless headsets, the latest of which is called the Era.

Jawbone was valued at $1.5 billion in mid-2011.

Jawbone’s last financial transaction was to garner over $100 million in debt and equity financing. Before that, it had raised more than $250 million in venture funding.

It has a strong list of investors, most of whom are expected to participate in the latest round, including Andreessen Horowitz, J.P. Morgan’s Digital Growth Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Its board is equally fancy, including VC Ben Horowitz, designer Yves Béhar and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

The company declined to comment when queried about the new round.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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