Discord’s round of financing valuation is as high as 15 billion U.S. dollars, which is jaw-dropping
Discord is so Hot now. Like many technology startups, it has now reached such a position, Despite relatively low income (USD 130 million in 2020), It has accumulated such a large user base (150 million per month), attracting many suitors: in recent years, this includes Amazon, Epic and most recently Microsoft (providing $12 billion for chat applications).
In recent years, Discord has taken some measures, such as abandoning the more obvious “game player” aspect of its brand and positioning itself as a more general chat application, and its valuation has been rising wildly. At the beginning of 2020, it was valued at approximately 3.5 billion U.S. dollars; by the end of 2020, this number had doubled to 7 billion U.S. dollars. In August of this year, CEO Jason Citron stated that the company plans to increase its valuation to around US$15 billion.
Hmm: It looks like Discord has succeeded. Discord just raised 500 million US dollars in a new round of financing, According to Bloomberg A person familiar with the matter said: “According to an unnamed person familiar with the matter, this transaction valued Discord at approximately US$15 billion.” This means that the US$500 million purchases approximately 3.33% of the company’s shares. .
That Discord round is complete! The company told me that they raised $500 million and confirmed our exclusive report on Dragoneer’s leadership. The source estimates that the valuation is about 15 billion U.S. dollars https://t.co/vKSVxHszbySeptember 15, 2021
In order to provide some background in the gaming industry for this valuation, Microsoft acquired Mojang (Minecraft) for 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, and recently acquired Bethesda for 7.5 billion U.S. dollars. Twitch was acquired by Amazon for US$1 billion in 2014 and is now estimated to be worth slightly less than US$4 billion. Discord is obviously huge, but wow.
This round of financing was led by Dragoneer, a San Francisco-based investment group focused on the technology market. It also involves funds from Baillie Gifford & Co., Coatue Management, Fidelity Management & Research Co. and Franklin Templeton, all large fund management companies, and some existing investors.
To be clear, this does not mean that someone will buy Discord for $15 billion, or that company Yes It is worth 15 billion U.S. dollars. It’s more like these big investors bet it might be.
Either way, Discord’s CEO and founder Jason Citron is undoubtedly very frustrated with many things, including rejecting Microsoft’s proposal. In an interview with the Financial Times last month, Citron linked the company’s success to wider online behavior: “This is a big trend [of people shifting away from] Broadcast open social media communication services to smaller, more private places […] We are an important part of the development of the Internet. “
It’s a bit frustrating for us to work hard, don’t go too far, it may mean Discord will get worse. The platform currently provides an amazing set of free features, endless plug-ins and ways to customize the experience, and relatively easy monetization of additional features. As our own Morgan wrote, we also advise you to enjoy Discord while it is still good:
“The exhausting rules of capitalism tell me that if there is no fixed paywall, Discord will not continue to provide the best chat and streaming applications. I think its current development trajectory is not entirely sustainable, so there may be some Bigger plan.
“What will it be, Discord? Will you charge $15 to go online? Limit voice chat time? Sell my voice data to a company that has built convincing artificial intelligence that will one day rule the world?”