The app wars continues as Snapchat, founded by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, are looking to evaluate their wildly popular photo messaging app.
The Los Angeles-based company is reportedly raising capital to the tune of $500 million in a new funding round that would value Snapchat at up to $19 billion. The latest valuation is a massive increase for the company famous for turning down a $3 billion offer from Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
Snapchat's previous funding round, completed late last year, found the mobile messaging company at more than $10 billion. For those unfamiliar with the app, Snapchat allows users to send messages that disappear after a few seconds. To date, the company has 100 million users who love sendings messages to one another, and even found singer Madonna releasing a new music video via the application during the 2015 Grammys.
Bloomberg, who first reported on the story, cited information from a source with close ties to the company, and says that Snapchat are in advanced talks with fund managers to raise the capital. The investments being discussed would value Snapchat between $16 billion and $19 billion overall, according to Bloomberg.
Company officials at Snapchat could not be reached immediately for comment.
At $19 billion, the drastic increase in valuation comes as the company continues to add to its active user base and extends its services. CNN, ESPN and The Sundance Film Festival were recently added last month, as videos from mainstream media outlets continue to buy in to Snapchat's intriguing look at sharing content.
This surge is also the latest evidence that Snapchat is in closer competition with Twitter and Facebook. With the current multi-billion number, Snapchat is the third-most valuable tech startup that does not trade its shares publicly. Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, ranks as number one with a valuation of $46 billion and app-based taxi service Uber is valued at $41 billion.
