Last month there were reports that gaming focused chat software maker Discord was being eyed up for takeover by various interested parties, including Microsoft, Amazon and Epic Games. Insider sources blabbed to the WSJ about Microsoft's willingness to hand over $10 billion to take over the company for the good of Xbox, but it now looks like these suitors will be able to keep their cash – or use some of it to buy shares when Discord sets up and schedules its stock market Initial Public Offering (IPO).
In case you need a catch-up, Discord is a chat and communications platform wildly popular with gamers, and with growing interest in other segments. Discord doubled its monthly active users to 140 million in 2021, and the app has 800,000 downloads per day. Its use among viral collaborative games like Among Us has helped in its booking popularity. Discord currently offers a free service but encourages users to go premium and subscribe to its enhanced Nitro offering.
Discord is looking for funding to improve and expand its offering / services for customers, and has recently been successful in raising up to $100 million in a Series H investment round. The scale of operations that Discord wants to build isn't cheap. This latest fundraising establishes a bottom line value for the company of $7 billion dollars.
The latest fundraising has been described by some parties as a 'pre-IPO round' for the privately-backed startup, notes TechCrunch. It is offering investors and institutions a way in before an IPO is scheduled which will likely be at a higher buy-in price, and who knows, its shares could be very warmly received.
