Social networking giant Facebook has agreed to acquire GIPHY, the widely-popular platform for social GIF usage. The terms of the transaction were not publicly disclosed but sources close the transaction indicate that the acquisition price is $400M. Facebook is trading just off a 52-week high and I assume there is a significant stock component to this deal. Facebook plans to integrate GIPHY into the Instagram team.
“A lot of people in our community already know and love GIPHY. In fact, 50% of GIPHY’s traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps, half of that from Instagram alone,” said Vishal Shah, VP of Product at Instagram. “By bringing Instagram and GIPHY together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct.”
A lot of people in our community already know and love GIPHY. In fact, 50% of GIPHY’s traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps, half of that from Instagram alone. By bringing Instagram and GIPHY together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct. Both our services are big supporters of the creator and artist community, and that will continue. Together, we can make it easier for anyone to create and share their work with the world.
Founded by Alex Chung and Jace Cooke in 2013, Giphy had raised a total of $150.9M in total reported equity funding over three rounds. The company’s last funding came in 2016 in a $72M round led by DFJ Growth. Other investors in Giphy include Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, GV, RRE Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Slow Ventures, IVP (Institutional Venture Partners), Betaworks, Haystack, Glynn Capital Management, CAA Ventures, CMC Capital Group, and Quire.
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