After weeks of speculation, Twitter confirmed today in a blog post that it has closed a “significant round of funding” led by the Russian firm DST Global.

“We will use these resources to aggressively innovate, hire more great people and invest in international expansion,” the San Francisco company wrote. Previous backers of the company include Benchmark Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The announcement will not likely bring to an end speculation about the financing, since Twitter did not release the amount it raised or the valuation that investors placed on the company.

Last month, Kara Swisher at All Things D reported that Twitter was nearing completion of an $800 million funding round that would value the company at $8 billion. To put that $800 million number in some perspective, that would be more than six times the amount of venture capital that was invested in Washington state during the entire second quarter.

Wow.

Why such a hefty amount of money?

Well, the same blog post that announces the funding, also provides some new numbers about the company’s growth.

Twitter now boasts more than 200 million Tweets per day –up from 65 million 12 months ago. The company’s staff also has mushroomed to over 600 people.

“More importantly, Twitter is where people around the globe come to instantly connect to what’s most meaningful to them,” the company writes. “This makes Twitter the only place in the world to get a real-time pulse on what people are thinking and doing practically anywhere.”

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