Big windfalls for 2 venture backers from Snap IPO

San Francisco

SNAP Inc's initial public offering (IPO) looks set to deliver windfalls to a long list of venture backers of the company behind the Snapchat social media app. But two will benefit more than most: Early investors Benchmark and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed, tracked down Snap co-founder Evan Spiegel to pitch an initial investment of US$485,000 in 2012 while Mr Spiegel was still a sophomore at Stanford University. Lightspeed owns 86.6 million shares of the company today, according to the IPO S-1 filing.

If Snap's market valuation matches the US$18 billion it was worth when raising money last spring, the Menlo Park, California firm could be looking at a jackpot of around US$1.3 billion, according to Equidate, a market for trading…