Discord Doubles Valuation To $7B In Latest Funding Round - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Chat startup, Discord - a communications platform with VoIP, instant messaging, and digital distribution capabilities, touched a $7 billion enterprise valuation in its latest funding round, the Wall Street Journal reports.

What Happened: Discord said it raised $100 million from its latest funding round led by global Greenoaks Capital, an investment company and exiting investor of Discord.

TechCrunch quoted Discord co-founder and CEO, saying that the company plans "to use this funding to help make Discord even better – both for our free service and our Nitro subscribers."

During the pandemic-induced lockdown, Discord benefited from the social distancing and remote work culture. The app's downloads have grown to approximately 800,000 a day while its user base peaked at over 140 million monthly active users this year, which is approximate 2x times the number of monthly active users in 2019.

Why Does It Matter: Crunchbase reports that Discord has raised roughly $480 million, including the latest Series H funding of $100 million.

According to TechCrunch, the current $7 billion valuation is twice that of June, when Discord secured $100 million from Index Ventures at a $3.5 billion valuation. At that time, Index Ventures partner Danny Rimer said, "Rather than throwing raw content at you, like Facebook, Discord provides a shared experience for you and your friends," TechCrunch quotes.

As per WSJ, gamers primarily use Discord, and its rise coincides with exploding popularity on online multiplayer games like Epic Games Inc.'s "Fortnite." The company generates subscription revenue from its Nitro service offerings of $9.99 a month and $99.99 per year. Discord is looking to expand beyond gaming.

On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission sent out an order to nine technology companies seeking insights into their data collection policy. Discord also featured in the list along with big tech giants like Amazon Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alphabet Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube, and well-known social media platforms like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB), Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) and Snap Inc (NYSE: SNAP).

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