GIFs — short, animated clips cut from iconic videos — have caught the eye of investors in Silicon Valley, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Giphy, a start-up that created a searchable database of GIFs, has raised a $72 million round of equity funding, bringing its valuation to around $600 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. Investors in the round include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Institutional Venture Partners and China Media Capital, according to the Journal's Rolfe Winkler.
CNBC has reached out for comment.
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GIFs — simple, looping images that often feature viral moments from pop culture — are ubiquitous on social media and messaging platforms. Giphy serves more than 1 billion GIFs a day, culminating in 2 million hours of GIFs viewed each day, according to a company blog.
Still, despite partnerships with major media companies, Giphy tells the Journal it hasn't figured out a way to bring in revenue yet, and will use the funding to expand its staff and technical capabilities. News of Giphy's funding comes after Twitter said it would shutter Vine, known for short, user-generated video clips.
