Snap Inc, the newly rebranded parent company of Snapchat, is preparing to go public in the spring of 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It claims Snap is “preparing the paperwork for an IPO with a view to selling the shares as early as late March” at a valuation as high as $25bn.
There’s still a question about whether Snap can achieve that valuation: in May it was valued at $17.8bn for its last round of funding, while uncertainty around everything from the global economy to the identity of the next US president is causing many companies to put their IPO plans on ice for the near future.
Still, Snap clearly hopes its rapid growth – in revenue as well as users – will tempt investors.
“The company told investors earlier this year that it expected revenue of between $250 million and $350 million in 2016 and as much as $1 billion in 2017,” noted the WSJ. “It is already ahead of the top end of its 2016 forecast, according to two people familiar with the matter.”
Many observers scoffed at Snapchat’s decision to turn down a $3bn acquisition offer from Facebook in 2013, but if its IPO plans come off, hindsight will deem that a fabulous decision.
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