Snapchat on Friday informed US regulators that it
has raised $537 million in a new round of equity
funding that could climb as high as $650 million.
The vanishing-message service did not disclose
who bought stakes in the Los Angeles-based
company, which came at a price estimated to give
Snapchat a value of more than $15 billion,
according to media reports.
US media reports indicated that Snapchat
investors in this latest round of fund raising
included Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba.
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Alibaba
committed to a $200 million investment in
Snapchat.
The chief of Snapchat said this week that the
company has a plan for an initial public offering
but did not reveal when it might happen.
"We need to IPO, we have a plan to do that,"
chief executive officer Evan Spiegel said on-stage
at a Code Conference in California when asked
about the potential for an initial public offering of
stock.
"An IPO is really important," he added, according
to a live blog of the exclusive technology
conference.
Snapchat rejected a $3 billion takeover offer from
Facebook in 2013.
Spiegel acknowledged plans for a Snapchat IPO
during a talk in which he agreed with the notion
there is a tech industry bubble that will at some
point burst, with low interest rates, easy money,
and risky investments calling for a "correction."
Snapchat rocketed to popularity in the United
States, especially among teenagers, after the
initial app was released in September 2011.
Smartphone app Snapchat late last year began
letting users in the United States send money to
friends by simply typing dollar amounts into new
"Snapcash" messages.
The new feature came from a first collaboration
between Snapchat and Square, a mobile
payments company headed by Twitter co-founder
Jack Dorsey.
The new service was added as Snapchat worked
to boost the money-making capabilities of its
popular app, which sees messages disappear
shortly after being viewed.
Snapchat has become a popular way for people to
share videos or photos, and has nearly 100
million people using it each day, according to
Spiegel.
Snapchat began weaving ads into the service last
year.
