If today’s announcement that Facebook was acquiring Instagram wasn’t hot enough already, here’s a little fuel for the picture-sharing fire: Instagram had just closed a $50 million round, at a valuation of $500 million.
According to TechCrunch, Sequoia, Thrive, Greylock and Benchmark were all in on the round. Now here’s the mind-blowing part – The investors doubled their money in less than 2 business days, as the funds were apparently wired to Instagram on Thursday night.
The company had previously raised a seed, Series A and Venture round, totaling $47.5 million. Adding in the present $50 million round for a total of $97.5 million Instagram walks away with the lion’s share of over $900 million; a huge chunk of cash for anyone, but even bigger for Instagram and its 12 employees.
For more on the financials of Facebook’s move, and what it means for both companies, check out Alex Wilhelm’s insight into the acquisition. Regardless of whether Instagram is just the YouTube of photos or not, the move is still huge. Of course, for those of us who didn’t make hundreds of millions of dollars today, a bit more practical information comes from Matthew Panzarino who shows you how to fully delete your Instagram account.
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