The fast growing social media startup Snapchat just raised a massive funding round at a reported $20 billion valuation, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing, published yesterday, said that the firm closed $1,808,560,006 in funding. It noted that the round started in mid-February 2015, a month before Snapchat announced that Alibaba invested $200 million into the company. Techcrunch reported that the round valued Snapchat at approximately $20 billion. Snapchat operates on a rolling funding cycle, where there are concurrent, ongoing, funding rounds, and TechCrunch says Snapchat is in the process of closing a few.
For an app that lets users send pictures and videos that only stick around for a few seconds to friends, Snapchat has come a long way. At $20 billion, it would be tied with Palantir as the third highest valued private US tech company. Only Uber and Airbnb would be bigger.
Snapchat’s valuation isn’t based on the company making money, but on rapid growth and constant usage. A pitch deck obtained by TechCrunch said Snapchat had $59 million in revenue last year. In April 2016, Snapchat told investors it was attracting 10 billion views a day. CEO Evan Spiegel said in February that Snapchat had 100 million users spending about half an hour on the app a day.
New funding could be used to pursue more acquisitions. The photo sharing company has acquired five companies and most recently bought Bitstamps, owner of popular animated avatar app Bitmoji, for $100 million.