How Snapchat’s planned IPO would stack up

Carrying a valuation of $17.8 billion, Snap is one of the most valuable startups in the world. The company’s days as a unicorn will soon be numbered though, as it publicly registered for its long anticipated IPO last week. According to the filing, Snapchat’s parent company seeks to raise $3 billion in its initial public offering which, according to sources close to the matter, is likely to take place in March.

After its launch in 2011, the image messaging app created by a group of Stanford students quickly gained popularity, as the app’s key feature of selfdeleting photos seemed to strike a nerve with young Americans in particular. Over the past few years, Snapchat has added new functionality and evolved into a platform for private, public and branded content alike. It currently has more than 150 million daily active users.

Snap’s initial public offering is targeting a valuation of up to $25 billion, which would make it the largest stock market debut of any tech company since Alibaba went public in September 2014. Our chart shows where an IPO valuation of $25 billion would put Snapchat in recent tech history. While no match for the blockbuster IPOs of Facebook and Alibaba, the rumoured valuation would see the company ahead of Twitter and Google at the time of their respective public trading debuts in 2013 and 2004. (Source: Statista)