Kleiner Perkins' $20 mn funding values Snapchat at $10 bn

Snapchat is about to close a $20 million fundraising round led by VC firm Kleiner Perkins at a $10 billion valuation, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The messaging app now has 100 million users the report said.

The company's valuation had increased phenomenally over a short period. Last year it was last year valued at $3 billion, a figure now dwarfed by its current value.

However, Kleiner Perkins' investment was not the end of Snapchat's near-term fundraising efforts as the current investment round remained open. According to report "at least one strategic investor" yet unnamed had committed to the round as well.

Snapchat and its investors would be expected to formally announce the new round of funding very soon.

Snapchat had already raised $163 million, of which a $50-million round in December last year valued it at $2 billion.

Commentators say that Snapchat would be one of the highest valued technology companies, and yethad no revenue streams, something which could change in the future.

The hypothesise Snapchat could derive revenues from payments with partners selling goods and services through the platform.

Another potential revenue stream was advertising, even as people seemed to believe somehow that advertising was off the table for the company. The common wisdom was that  the flow of the app would be disrupted, and given that messages disappeared in seconds, there was not enough time to run ads.

Snapchat recently launched a separate app called Snapchat Discovery, dedicated to showing TV and movie clips, and news. The app is expected to debut in November, and would feature advertisements too. 

According to reports Snapchat had been holding talks with advertisers and at least a dozen media companies, including some newspapers, magazines and television networks.