Snapchat Confidentially Files for Massive IPO, Seeks to Raise $4 Billion

Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., has confidentially filed paperwork with the SEC, laying the groundwork an IPO, which will likely occur in March 2017. The filing indicates that its yearly revenue is currently less than $1 billion, though Snap anticipates that number will rise in the coming years.

According to Bloomberg, the company is seeking to raise around $4 billion for the IPO, which could value it at around $25 to $35 billion.

In any case, Snap Inc.’s IPO is the most highly anticipated one to come to the tech industry in recent years, and will likely be the biggest US social media IPO since Twitter went public in 2013. On the other hand, Chinese e-retailing giant Alibaba IPO’d at a $168 billion valuation in 2014.

The ephemeral messaging app currently has 150 million subscribers and is widely seen as an innovator in social media and advertising. Snap Inc. has also made inroads into news coverage with an emphasis on visual storytelling, and has also developed new forms of advertising such as sponsored lenses. Last year, the company drew $59 million in ad revenues, primarily from the ads that are inserted between the pages of stories and video diaries that are shared on the app. This year, it is projected to make between $250 and $350 million, and hopes to exceed the $1 billion mark in 2017.

With Facebook announcing that it is nearing the peak amount of advertising on its platform, and its splashy foray into hardware with the Spectacles debut, Snapchat will likely become an even more enticing location for marketing buys.