Snapchat Inc, among a pack of elite technology startups that has attained a valuation of US$10 billion or more, capped last year with a filing that disclosed it raised US$485.6 million.
The Los Angeles-based company, which makes a mobile application for sending annotated photographs that disappear within seconds, said in the filing that it raised the money from 23 investors.
Snapchat, led by chief executive Evan Spiegel, did not disclose the investors’ names or the company’s valuation.
ALIBABA
The filing is the first disclosure by Snapchat about its fundraising, which has been in process for months. Bloomberg News reported last year that the startup had been in discussions with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) to raise money at a US$10 billion valuation.
While the talks with Alibaba ended, Snapchat has drawn other investors into the fundraising, including Yahoo Inc and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Snapchat spokeswoman Mary Ritti did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The filing punctuates how last year was a year of skyrocketing valuations for many closely held technology startups.
Numerous companies — from business software makers to mobile device app developers — have been valued at more than US$1 billion this year as investors have piled into startups seeking fast growth.
UBER
Last month, mobile car-booking company Uber Technologies Inc said it had raised money at a US$40 billion valuation, while Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp (小米) said that it had gotten funding at a US$46 billion valuation.
Snapchat has been developing a business model for advertisers to share disappearing stories. Users send more than 700 million disappearing “snaps” a day and more than 500 million stories are viewed daily, the company has said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure