Vanishing messaging app Snapchat is in talks with investors, including Alibaba, to raise a round of funding which could increase the value of the company to a staggering $10bn.
Snapchat previously raised $130m from investors, but with the additional funding, the photo message provider could hire more staff and speed up its product development.
Alibaba has been looking out for investment opportunities in the US and it led a $206m investment for Amazon rival ShopRunner and also for Lift.
The e-commerce giant is trying to promote its own messaging app Laiwang which is facing tough competition from WeChat, and by investing in Snapchat it could get into the league of apps in the US.
Snapchat has more than 500 million users and sparked the interest of Facebook, which then tried to acquire it for $3bn. However, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel declined the offer.
If the funding materialises, Snapchat will join the league of startups that are valued at more than $10bn, which includes Airbnb and Dropbox.
