High School Makes $24 Million From Snap IPO

High School Makes $24 Million From Snap IPO
A banner for Snap Inc. hangs from the front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on March 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The Associated Press
3/3/2017
Updated:
3/3/2017

SAN FRANCISCO—A California high school has made millions of dollars from the initial public offering of shares in Snap Inc., the company behind the Snapchat photo messaging application.

The board of the Saint Francis high school in Mountain View agreed to invest $15,000 in seed money in Snap in 2012, when the company was just getting started.

They had been invited to do so by one of the student’s parents, a venture capital investor, the high school president says in a letter issued to the school community Thursday.

The school held onto the investment until this week, when Snap shares sold for $17 each in an IPO. The share price rocketed another 44 percent higher when trading began Thursday.

The school was quoted by media including website Quartz as saying they sold two-thirds of their shares at $17 each, to raise $24 million.

“The school’s investment in Snap—which this morning announced the completion of its IPO—has matured and given us a significant boost,” said the high school president, Simon Chiu, in the letter.