Snapchat seeks funding with whopping $10 billion valuation

By

post-289330-image-23c29a9722ae72d6956014bc8fffec1d-jpg

Snapchat is currently in talks with investors over a round of funding that could value the company at a mind-blowing $10 billion, according to sources for Bloomberg. That’s a little over half the $19 billion Facebook paid for WhatsApp, but double the $5 billion market cap currently held by BlackBerry.

The talks are ongoing and the terms of the funding may change, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private,” Bloomberg reports.

It’s thought one of the biggest names that could be interested in investing in Snapchat is Alibaba, a Chinese company famous for its e-commerce businesses. Back in 2012, Alibaba raked in a staggering ¥1.1 trillion ($170 billion) in revenue — more than retail giants Amazon and eBay combined.

Both Alibaba and Snapchat have declined to comment on the most recent talks, but Snapchat has turned to investors to raise cash in the past. Just last year, the company raised $100 million from investors that included General Catalyst Partners, SV Angel, and Institutional Venture Partners.

$10 billion is an incredible valuation for a company that’s just three years old, but it has been an overwhelming success on Android and iOS. Its apps allow users to send photos and videos to friends that are automatically deleted for good after just a few seconds, and it’s particularly popular with teens.

Back in May, Snapchat revealed that its users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day — a big increase from the 400 million being shared per day in November 2013.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.