Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers will invest up to $20 million in the (temporary) messaging service Snapchat, reports today say, giving the startup — which has virtually no revenue — a valuation of $10 billion.
Snapchat has been making the rounds, looking for potential backers in the past few months. The most recent rumor had the messaging service in talks with Alibaba about a possible investment. The talks reportedly fell through.
Snapchat says that it has 10 million users and that two-thirds of them log in to the service every day. The app originally caught on with teenagers because messages disappear after a certain period, making it hard for parents to monitor them.
The new investment money may be used to turn the Snapchat’s messaging platform into an advertising platform.
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In late 2013, Snapchat famously turned down a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story today, says Kleiner Perkins committed to the investment in May.
Kleiner Perkins hasn’t yet commented.
“The valuation of our business and our capital requirements are the least exciting aspects of supporting the Snapchat community,” Snapchat said in an email to the Journal. “We have no further comment at this time.”
Then the email disappeared.
