Snapchat is buying Bitstrips, the company behind the Bitmoji app that lets you create an avatar of yourself to share on social media and over text, according to a source familiar with the deal.
Snapchat Is Buying Bitstrips, the Company That Turns You Into an Emoji
Snapchat is reportedly paying $100 million for the company.
Bitstrips
Fortune’s Dan Primack, who first reported the news, said Snapchat is paying “in the ballpark of $100 million” for the company, which was founded in 2012. It quickly became popular on Facebook, as users created and shared cartoon versions of themselves in a bunch of different settings.
Update: According to Snap’s S-1 filing from February 2017, Bitstrips was acquired for around $64 million in cash and stock.
A Snapchat spokesperson declined to comment.
The app raised $8 million in funding from Horizon Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers back in late 2014 to build a mobile app.
It’s not entirely clear why Snapchat wants Bitmoji, but it feels like a good fit for the company, which has a number of other fun features to help users spruce up their photos and videos. Snapchat allows users to put emojis on photos and videos they send, and has generated a lot of buzz for facial filters that let people distort their faces into different animals or characters. (Facebook just bought a similar company two weeks ago.) Personal emojis are a logical fit in that regard.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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