Social media platform Reddit’s valuation is up to more than $10 billion as it works to raise as much as $700 million in a fundraising round led by Fidelity Management. The company has already brought in $410 million in its second round of fundraising this year, one that was affected by so-called “small-time traders.”
Reddit’s valuation sat at $6 billion in February, double what it was a year earlier.
Reuters reported on Thursday (Aug. 12) that the traders had initially targeted Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum in their ongoing battle against Wall Street, but later spread their message across discussion boards.
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In May, WallStreetBets launched a blockchain-powered application to “decentralize indices.” WallStreetBets Founder Jaime Rogozinski told CNBC in May, “We know the benefits of blockchain, and we’ve seen it over the years: the transparency, the security of it, the democratization of it.”
WallStreetBets members on a Reddit thread started buying GameStop stock in early January, which pushed up the price. Shares of GameStop went from approximately $20 at the beginning of January to almost $350 on Jan. 27; they sit at almost $160 today.
San Francisco-based Reddit, which was founded in 2005 by Chief Executive Steve Huffman, entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian and internet activist Aaron Swartz, still trails other social media platforms — including Twitter at $52 billion and Facebook at $1 trillion — in its valuation, despite being started at about the same time.
Reddit investors include rap mogul Snoop Dogg, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and funds including Sequoia Capital and Tencent Holdings.
Related news: Reddit Valuation Hits $6B With New Funding
Reddit says in its marketing materials that more than 50 million people visit the website daily.
Read next: Reddit Hires First Chief Financial Officer As It Mulls Public Filing
Reddit appointed Drew Vollero, who was also Snap’s CFO and helped take the company public in 2017, as its first chief financial officer in March.
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