Evan Williams, a co-founder of the popular microblogging website Twitter, refuted speculations that the company has any plans to raise a large round of funding. Williams told an industry gathering in San Francisco on Wednesday that Twitter has "a lot of money in the bank." He declined to comment on whether the company was in discussions with investment firms about funding.

Twitter has a base of 175 million users being one of the most popular Internet social networking services. The company has only recently started efforts to generate revenue through special ads that appear in certain parts of its service.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 conference on Wednesday, Williams said the company's initial efforts at generating advertising revenue had exceeded the company's expectations, though he declined to provide financial details.

Earlier on Wednesday a popular technology blog reported that Twitter is considering raising funding that would value the company at $3 billion. Russian technology investment firm DST Global is seeking to lead the funding round, which would be larger than the $100 million that Twitter raised in September 2009, according to a report on TechCrunch. r.reuters.com/gek95q

The report said that other investors are also eager to be involved.

A Twitter spokesperson said the company does not comment on rumors.