US-based visual messaging platform Snapchat has raised $1.8bn in its series F round, according to a regulatory filing yesterday.
The filing indicates the start of the round stretches back to February 2015, meaning it would incorporate the $538m provided in 2015 by e-commerce firm Alibaba, which reportedly invested $200m, financial services group Fidelity Investments, York Capital and Glade Brook Capital.
The round included Fidelity, which invested $175m in March 2016, General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price, Lone Pine, Glade Brook, Coatue Management and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and $1.16bn has been raised since January this year, “reliable sources” informed TechCrunch.
Reports earlier this week suggested Snapchat was seeking $200m at a valuation of between $20bn and $22.7bn, though two different sources told TechCrunch the cash was raised at pre-money valuations of $16bn and $17.5bn. The difference could be down to the company’s habit of continually raising money at rolling valuations.
Snapchat operates an ephemeral social messaging platform revolving around videos, text and customisable photos. Its user base grew from 74 million members in December 2014 to 110 million a year later, according to an investor deck seen by TechCrunch.
The company recorded $59m in revenue in 2015, but has projected between $250m and $300m for this year and between $500m and $1bn in 2017, the deck stated. Snapchat said last month the number of video views on its platform had grown to 10 billion per day, from 8 billion a day in February.
The new funding means Snapchat has now raised about $2.4bn in funding altogether. Internet company Tencent took part in its $80m series B round in 2013, closed at an $800m valuation, along with IVP, Benchmark Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Another internet company, Yahoo, invested in Snapchat’s $485m series D round, as one of 23 investors that also included Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Singaporean government-owned GIC and August Capital.