Is Snapchat Worth More Than $20 Billion? New Report Shows Mobile Messaging App Firm’s Estimated Valuation Is Higher Than Previously Reported

Snapchat, the company responsible for the mobile messaging application of the same name that is popular among major news outlets and teenagers alike, has been valued at about $20 billion, around $4 billion more than estimated in the first quarter of this year.

According to a VC Experts analysis of corporate filings reported by TechCrunch Monday, Snapchat is in the midst of a $200 million fundraising round that is a follow-on of the $175 million fundraising round led by Fidelity Investments in February. The company’s current maximum valuation could be as much as $22.7 billion, based on the available shares and the share price of $30.72 that Fidelity paid early this year.

“They get offers all the time,” one investor familiar with Snapchat told TechCrunch. “And once you start to grow on this path, many people come to give you money. You don’t know how to value the company, so the best way to do that is to do some kind of rolling funding.”

Indeed, excitement around the Venice, California-based Snapchat has early investors piling into the company based on the app created in 2012 by three former Stanford University students who stand to reap fortune in the event the firm files for an initial public offering. Snapchat’s revised valuation puts it at about two-thirds that of Tesla Motors and around one-half that of Netflix.

Snapchat’s valuation is important in assessing the cost of acquiring the company and also sets up expectations in case of an eventual IPO by offering a guidepost to the value of its equity.

Snapchat has raised about $1.5 billion in venture capital funding, TechCrunch reported.

Fidelity is just one of a number of venture capital players that has pinned high hopes on Snapchat. China’s Alibaba Group Holding and Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holdings are among some of its bigger investors.

Known for its face-changing filters and its assurance to users that their content isn’t stored, but permanently deleted after a short period, Snapchat has become popular with media organizations and other businesses for the ease with which it enables graphic presentations and live videos to be published socially.