Dive Brief:
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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will invest $200 million in photo-sharing-and-disappearing app Snapchat at a valuation of $15 million, sources have told Bloomberg.
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The Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China-based company also reported that it has expanded its U.S. investment team with the hire of Mike Katz as part of its investment team in San Francisco.
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Katz has been VP at Battery Ventures for the past three years, has worked at search engine optimization company Conductor as an executive, and previously with a venture capital firm.
Dive Insight:
Alibaba has made clear that its ambitions lie both within and outside of retail, and it continues to make good on that. The company had discussed plans to invest in Snapchat last year, but never did before its massive IPO in the U.S. in September.
“Alibaba has major plans to access overseas markets,” said You Na, an analyst at Hong Kong-based ICBC International Research Ltd., told Bloomberg. “They also have intentions to move into social networks.”
