Mountain View Private School Scores $23M Windfall With Snapchat Investment
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) -- Social media company Snapchat went public Thursday, and a private school in Mountain View have made upwards of $23 million thanks to an early investment.
The company -- which now goes by the name Snap, Inc. -- rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning.
The stock soared, with the company is now valued at a whopping $22 billion.
Shares of Snap Inc. jumped $7.58, or 44 percent, to close at $24.48 on Thursday.
Thursday afternoon, administrators at Mountain View's Saint Francis High were sharing the good news with staff and faculty. On paper, they've just made over $2o million.
Snap, Inc. Is currently valued at $33 billion dollars, which puts it on par with Target and the Marriott Hotel chain.
The company's connection with St. Francis High dates bạck to 2012.
A parent at the school named of Barry Eggers convinced the school's investment fund to get in early.
Eggers is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, which was also an early backer of Snapchat.
In a blog post, Eggers said he came home from work one day five years ago and saw his kids laughing and engrossed in this new app called Snapchat.
So how much did the school reap in the end?
"Well, we made a $15,000 investment," said St. Francis High School President Simon Chiu. "Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $23 million dollars or something like that."
Former School President Kevin Makley was on the investment team that gave the green light. He says the school is blessed.
"I'm not so sure that I call it divine intervention, but I'll tell you what: if you can turn $15,000 into the vast amount of money that this return will bring, you have to say God's looking out for us," said Makley. "You've got the smile of someone who looks like they just won the lottery. We almost feel like that."
St. Francis officials said a lot of the earnings will go toward an endowment that will be used for financial aid.
