One report was a leak of the company’s presentation deck that showed Snapchat had generated over $360 million worth of revenue in 2016, above the its original $300 million to $350 million expectation and far above its $50 million in revenue for 2015.
For 2017, management expects revenues to fall between $500 million and $1 billion, with one analyst expecting the figure to top $900 million. That’s a pretty impressive growth rate and one that investors would likely cheer in an IPO.
Like most private companies, Snapchat has had to rely on selling equity for cash in order to raise the necessary funds to grow its business. However, the company has now opened a line of credit with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), which should help fund its operations and growth initiatives until it IPOs (assuming it does).
