Kik, a Waterloo-based chat app boasting 240 million users, is now valued at $1 billion.
That announcement was made Tuesday, in a press release touting the $50 million in funding the company had landed from Tencent, a major internet service provider in China.
The funding will be used to double the company’s size and give it new opportunities to focus on the American market.
According to the press release, 40 per cent of American teenagers use Kik.
“Young Americans are a large group with unmet needs. We can’t think of a better group to be building for,” Kik CEO and founder Ted Livingston said in the release.
Livingston has previously called his product the “WeChat of the West,” in reference to a popular chat app created by Tencent.
Earlier this year, Kik announced plans to double its Waterloo-based workforce from 65 people to 130.
They also have offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
