Yahoo set to invest in $10bn Snapchat, a start-up with no revenue run by a 24-year-old

Savvy move into mobile or tech bubble bonkers?

Three-year-old messaging app Snapchat is being valued at a whopping $10bn in its current fundraising round, and Yahoo wants a piece of the action.

Yahoo is “committed” to investing, according to sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal, with one person saying the amount will be around the $20m mark.

Yahoo and Snapchat have so far both declined to comment on the story.

It’s been just under a year since Snapchat, then a mere two years old, rejected a $3bn acquisition offer from Facebook. It would have been Facebook’s biggest acquisition ever.

Snapchat’s seemingly rather bold co-founder and CEO, Evan Spiegel, was just 23 years old at the time. (He’s 24 now.)

Snapchat still doesn’t generate any revenue.

The app, which lets users send messages and photos that self-delete after a few seconds, now has more than 100 million monthly active users, who are mostly in their teens and twenties.

Yahoo looks like it’s pushing further into the mobile domain to try to stay competitive and unearth new revenue streams.

It’s also buying mobile messaging company MessageMe this week, according to TechCrunch.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has a bit of cash to play with, having just racked up $5bn from selling Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba.

Do you think Snapchat is worth $10bn? Would you invest, if you could? Let me know @sophiehobson