Snapchat reveals $485m of funding, taking it to a reported $10bn valuation
Lawsuits, leaked snaps and regulatory scrutiny haven’t put investors off messaging app as it finally starts making money from ads
Messaging app Snapchat has raised its latest round of funding, $485.6m, which may value the US-based company at more than $10bn.
The funding was revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with 23 investors taking part in the round, which takes Snapchat’s total funding so far to just under $648m.
The filing leaves those investors unidentified, but reports from Bloomberg and TechCrunch both suggest technology company Yahoo and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers were involved in the round.
Both reports also suggest that the round values Snapchat at $10bn, little over a year after the company rejected a $3bn acquisition offer from Facebook.
The details of the funding round were revealed at the end of a year that has seen rapid growth for Snapchat, which is thought to now have 200 million active users sending photos and videos to one another - up from 100 million earlier in 2014 .
Snapchat has also made its first steps towards making money, launching its first advertisement - a 20-second trailer for horror film Ouija, paid for by studio Universal Pictures - in October.
2014 was a challenging year for Snapchat in other ways, however. The company eventually settled a lawsuit from ousted co-founder Reggie Brown, and faced scrutiny in October after explicit images sent by users were leaked in a breach nicknamed “The Snappening”.