Snapchat Inc. is in search of a brand new round of funding that would value the corporation as higher as $19 billion, an individual with understanding of your matter mentioned, generating it the third-most precious venture-backed company inside the globe.Snapchat, which tends to make a mobile application for sending pictures and videos that disappear within seconds, desires to raise as significantly as $500 million, mentioned the person, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Executives are in sophisticated discussions with fund managers, the particular person stated.
The Los Angeles-based business would be valued at $16 billion to $19 billion in the financing round, the particular person said. At that level, Snapchat would be ranked behind only mobile car-booking application Uber Technologies Inc. and Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. within the top 3 startups backed by venture capital firms, in accordance with data compiled by researcher CB Insights. Xiaomi is valued at $45 billion, though Uber’s most up-to-date round pegged its value at $40 billion.
That worth is also close to the $22 billion Facebook Inc. paid final year for WhatsApp Inc., a messaging business that now has 700 million users.
Snapchat’s valuation has skyrocketed since it was born in 2011 out of a Stanford University fraternity house. Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel, 24, turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook in 2013 and went on to raise funds from 23 investors at a $10 billion valuation last year. That raise has corresponded using a surge in venture spending to the highest level in additional than a decade.
Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for Snapchat, declined to comment.
