Discord IPO: Everything You Need to Know

In this guide, we'll review everything you need to know about the Discord IPO, including:

• When will Discord IPO?
• What is Discord?
• History of Discord
• Discord Financials & Funding History
• Discord CEO & Leadership Team
• Discord Investors
• Similar Companies to Discord

The research for this IPO review was partially done by our fine-tuned GPT-3 enabled IPO research assistant, which you can learn more about here

When will Discord IPO?

Discord is expected to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in 2023.

The exact date of the IPO is not yet confirmed, but the company has been making moves to prepare for it which we'll discuss below, such as hiring former senior execs from top tech and digital firms.

It is likely that the IPO will be filed on Nasdaq, as is the case with other tech companies similar to Discor. The IPO price and stock symbol are also not yet known but will be available when the company files its IPO prospectus with the SEC.

Of course, given that the global macroeconomic environment is not very favorable for tech companies right now, we may have to wait until the later half of 2023 or 2024 for confirmation about the Discord IPO.

What is Discord?

Discord is a platform for instant messaging, voice calls, streaming, and other types of media exchange. It is primarily targeted at gamers and is also quite popular amongst the crypto community.

At a high-levlel, Discord operates as a voice, video, and text communication service to talk and hang out with friends and communities. Discord is also used for creating communities around sub-niches such as specific games or cryptocurrencies, and its low-latency, lag-free capabilities make its voice over internet protocol (VoIP) functionality ideal for gamers and individuals looking for high quality, disturbance-free voice chats.

History of Discord

Discord was launched in 2015 with the goal of solving ‘discord in the gaming community’ after the founder and CEO Jason Citron experienced how challenging it was to communicate with his teammates while playing his favorite video games.

Discord was initially launched without the intention of focusing on the gaming community, but some gaming-related subreddit threads soon started to replace their IRC accounts with Discord accounts.

Following this, Discord became wildly popular among eSports and Local Area Network (LAN) tournament gamers, Twitch streamers, as well as Xbox Live users, owing to its low-latency chats and intuitive user interface.

On Discord, individuals and groups can communicate through private chats or by joining shared communities known as "servers." These servers serve as a hub for a variety of purposes, including streaming and socializing. Users can join servers that align with their interests, but must be invited by the server owner.

Analysts expect Discord to continue growing the number of servers on its database as it progresses toward its initial public offering.

Discord Financials & Funding History

In terms of Discord's financials & funding history, in January 2016 Discord raised $20 million in a funding round, then $150 million in December 2018, and announced a valuation of $2 billion.

in 2020 the company reported $130 million in revenue, which came from paid subscriptions, server boosting, and associated fees from game sales.

In 2021, the decision was made by Discord to turn down a $10 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft, as well as additional acquisition proposals from Twitter and Amazon, opting instead to prepare for an initial public offering.

In September 2021, Discord raised another $500 million, which lifted its valuation to $15 billion, according to PitchBook data. This is more than double its previous valuation of $7.3 billion in December 2020.

Overall, Discord has raised a total of $995.4M in funding over 16 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Mar 12, 2022, from a Secondary Market round.

Discord CEO & Leadership Team

Discord was founded in 2015 by CEO and co-founder Jason Citron, who CEO has an estimated net worth of $800 million.

The company currently has 2500+ current employee profiles on LinkedIn, including Citron.

Discord has made several that indicate an IPO is around the corner. For example in March 2021, Discord recruited former Pinterest executive Tomas Marcinkowski to join as its first-ever chief financial officer (CFO).

The company followed that high-profile hire with the addition of ex-Netflix executive Leslie Kilgore and Block’s former CFO Amrita Ahuja to its board of directors.

Discord Investors

Discord has 31 investors, including Arcane Group and Flat Capital, amongst others.

Fidelity, which is an investor in Discord through its mutual fund arm Contrafund, lowered the value of its Discord shares by 32%, from $550.62 a share in May 2022 to $373.65 a share in June 2022.

Similar Companies to Discord

A few alternatives and possible competitors to Discord may include Chief, ClassDojo, and When I Work:

• Chief is a communication platform for teams, providing a secure and private space for teams to communicate, collaborate, and manage projects.
• ClassDojo is a communication platform for teachers, parents, and students, providing a secure and private space for teachers to communicate with parents and students.
• When I Work is a communication platform for businesses, providing a secure and private space for businesses to communicate with their employees.

Summary: Discord IPO

• Discord is a platform for instant messaging and media exchange, primarily used by gamers and the crypto community.
• It was launched in 2015 by CEO Jason Citron and has gained popularity among esports and LAN tournament gamers, Twitch streamers, and Xbox Live users due to its low-latency chats and user-friendly interface.
• Discord has raised a total of $995.4 million in funding over 16 rounds, with its most recent funding round raising $500 million and valuing the company at $15 billion.
• The company has recently made moves indicating that it is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), including hiring former senior executives from top tech and digital firms and turning down acquisition deals from Microsoft, Twitter, and Amazon.
• The exact date of the Discord IPO is not yet confirmed, but it is expected to take place in 2023 or 2024.