With just a few hours before 2015, Snapchat, the ephemeral social media app has confirmed it raised a massive funding round.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Snapchat reported it raised just over $485 million. Mitch Lasky, a partner at Benchmark, and Michael Lynton, the CEO of Sony, are listed as “related persons” in the filing, which also revealed 23 investors participated in the funding round.
For some time now, Snapchat has been reported to be raising funding that would value the company at around $10 billion. Indeed, several emails that were leaked as part of the massive Sony hack showed correspondence between Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, Lynton
and Lasky indicating the company had plans to raise north of a half billion dollars.
A Form D doesn’t necessarily indicate the company has raised all of the money it plans to raise, but it does confirm a massive funding round. Snapchat recently began selling its first advertisements that run as Snapchat Stories, and several small acquisitions were also revealed as part of the Sony email leaks.
Such a large funding round by a company like Snapchat suggests big expansion plans, and the desire for a war chest that enables to the company to quickly acquire smaller startups. A representative from Snapchat did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
