It isn’t the biggest of the bunch, but it just might be the rarest.
The $50-million investment from Chinese tech giant Tencent brings Kik’s total valuation to $1 billion, according to a press release from the Waterloo-based developer of a popular chat app.
Kik reached that valuation only six years after the company was founded – and without turning a profit.
That latter feat is so rare in the venture capital world that companies achieving it are dubbed ‘unicorns’.
Paul Gray, Kik’s director of platform services, says the funding is nice, but the ability to work with Tencent – owners of the popular Chinese chat app WeChat – is a big boon as well.
“We’re really looking forward to working closely with them,” he said in an interview.
While WeChat does offer person-to-person messaging services similar to Kik’s, it also lets users communicate with brands and serves as a one-stop shop for online commerce.
Gray sees that as a particularly attractive model given Kik’s popularity with young users, who are more likely to willingly engage with the service in that way.
And while Kik’s rapid ascent has led it to open offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Gray says Waterloo will remain its home for the foreseeable future – in fact, many of its planned 100 new hires will be based locally.
Kik is the fifth tech company in Waterloo Region to reach a $1-billion valuation.
The others, in the order they hit the milestone, are BlackBerry, Teledyne Dalsa, OpenText and Descartes.
