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Who owns Snapchat in 2024? Discover the complete ownership breakdown of Snap Inc., including founder stakes, major shareholders, and voting control.
When searching "who owns Snapchat," the answer is more complex than many realize. Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, is a publicly traded corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SNAP. However, despite being public, effective control remains firmly in the hands of its two co-founders, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, who together control approximately 95% of the voting power through a multi-class share structure. This ownership arrangement has created one of the most founder-friendly corporate governance structures in Silicon Valley history.
Snapchat is owned by Snap Inc., a Delaware corporation that went public in March 2017. The company employs a three-class share structure that concentrates voting control with its founders while allowing public investors to own economic stakes in the business. As of 2024, co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel owns approximately 13% of Snap Inc.'s economic interest but controls roughly 53% of voting power. Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Bobby Murphy holds a similar stake, with approximately 11% economic ownership and 43% voting control.
The remaining shares are held by institutional investors, retail shareholders, and employees. Major institutional holders include Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and Fidelity, which collectively own billions of dollars worth of Snap Inc. stock. However, these institutional investors hold only Class A shares, which carry zero voting rights. This means that while they own significant economic stakes in the company, they have no direct influence over corporate governance decisions, board elections, or major strategic choices.
This ownership structure was intentionally designed to protect the founders' vision for Snapchat from short-term pressures from Wall Street and activist investors.
Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy created Snapchat while students at Stanford University in 2011. Their partnership has remained strong throughout Snapchat's evolution from a simple photo-sharing app to a multimedia platform with over 400 million daily active users. Both founders have maintained substantial ownership positions while selling relatively few shares compared to founders of other major tech companies.
Evan Spiegel, who serves as CEO, holds approximately 166 million Class B and Class C shares combined. His Class C shares carry 10 votes per share, giving him outsized control despite owning only about 13% of the company's total equity. Spiegel has been relatively conservative in selling his shares, though he has sold some stock to cover tax obligations related to his compensation package. His remaining stake is valued at approximately $2 billion based on Snap's current market capitalization of around $16 billion.
Bobby Murphy, the Chief Technology Officer, maintains a nearly equivalent position to Spiegel. Murphy owns approximately 140 million shares across Class B and Class C categories. His stake represents roughly 11% of the company's economic value. Murphy has been even more conservative than Spiegel in selling shares, rarely divesting any of his holdings. Together, the two founders have created an impenetrable voting bloc that ensures they retain control regardless of how many shares they sell in the future.
The relationship between Spiegel and Murphy appears remarkably stable. Unlike other high-profile tech co-founder relationships that have ended in acrimony, Spiegel and Murphy have maintained aligned interests and continue to work closely on Snapchat's strategic direction.
Snap Inc. operates with one of the most unusual stock structures in modern corporate America. The company has three classes of common stock, each with radically different voting rights. This structure was controversial when announced before the IPO and remains a point of contention among corporate governance experts.
Class A shares are held by public investors and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SNAP. These shares carry zero voting rights. Class A shareholders receive economic returns through dividends and stock appreciation but cannot vote on any corporate matters, including board elections, executive compensation, or major transactions. When Snap went public in 2017, it became the first company in over a decade to list on a major U.S. exchange with a non-voting share structure for public investors.
Class B shares are held primarily by early employees and investors who joined before the IPO. Each Class B share carries one vote per share. These shareholders have some voice in corporate governance but are still overwhelmingly outvoted by the founders. Class B shares can be converted into Class A shares when sold, which means employees and early investors who want to liquidate their positions must give up their voting rights in the process.
Class C shares are held exclusively by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Each Class C share carries 10 votes, creating a 10-to-1 voting advantage over Class B shares and infinite advantage over Class A shares. The founders' Class C shares automatically convert to Class B shares if they leave the company or transfer ownership to anyone outside a narrow group of permitted family trusts. This structure ensures that control cannot be transferred or inherited without losing its enhanced voting power.
Despite having no voting rights, major institutional investors have accumulated significant economic stakes in Snap Inc. These investors view Snapchat as a strategic holding within the social media and digital advertising sectors, betting that the platform's growth trajectory will deliver strong returns regardless of their lack of governance influence.
The Vanguard Group stands as the largest institutional shareholder, holding approximately 145 million Class A shares representing roughly 11% of the company's outstanding stock. Vanguard's position is valued at approximately $1.8 billion. As a primarily passive index fund manager, Vanguard's holdings reflect Snap's inclusion in various market indices rather than an active investment thesis.
BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager, holds the second-largest institutional position with approximately 110 million shares or 8.5% of outstanding stock. BlackRock's stake is worth roughly $1.4 billion. While BlackRock has been vocal about corporate governance reform at other companies, it accepted Snap's non-voting share structure as part of its investment decision.
Fidelity Management and Research Company maintains approximately 75 million shares, representing about 5.8% ownership. Fidelity has a history of making concentrated bets on growth companies and has maintained its Snap position through significant volatility. State Street Corporation holds another 50 million shares (3.8%), while various other mutual funds, pension funds, and asset managers collectively own hundreds of millions more shares.
These institutional shareholders participate in quarterly earnings calls and have access to management through investor relations channels, but they cannot force any changes to company strategy, compensation policies, or board composition. Their only recourse if dissatisfied is to sell their shares.
As of 2024, Snap Inc.'s total ownership structure breaks down across several categories. The company has approximately 1.3 billion Class A shares outstanding, 275 million Class B shares, and 320 million Class C shares. This creates a total of roughly 1.9 billion shares outstanding with vastly different voting and economic characteristics.
Founder ownership represents approximately 24% of total economic value but 95% of voting control. Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy together hold about 486 million shares across Class B and Class C categories. When calculating voting power, their Class C holdings of approximately 320 million shares translate to 3.2 billion votes, completely dominating the voting landscape.
Institutional investors own approximately 55% of the economic value through Class A holdings. The top 10 institutional shareholders collectively control about 600 million shares worth roughly $7.5 billion. However, their combined voting power is zero. This creates an unusual dynamic where the majority economic owners have no voice in governance while a minority economic stake controls all meaningful decisions.
Individual retail investors hold approximately 15% of shares through brokerage accounts and direct purchase plans. These investors also hold exclusively non-voting Class A shares. The remaining 6% is held by early employees, advisors, and early-stage investors who received Class B shares before the IPO. Many of these individuals have sold their positions over time, converting Class B shares to Class A in the process.
| Shareholder Category | Economic Ownership | Voting Control |
|---|---|---|
| Evan Spiegel | ~13% | ~53% |
| Bobby Murphy | ~11% | ~43% |
| Institutional Investors | ~55% | 0% |
| Retail Investors | ~15% | 0% |
| Employees & Early Investors | ~6% | ~4% |
The mechanisms through which Spiegel and Murphy maintain control go beyond simple vote counting. Snap Inc.'s corporate governance documents contain multiple provisions that reinforce founder authority and make it virtually impossible for outside shareholders to influence major decisions.
The board of directors consists of nine members, but Spiegel and Murphy effectively control board elections through their super-voting shares. Directors serve staggered terms, making it impossible to replace the entire board at once even if someone somehow accumulated enough voting power to challenge the founders. The board has significant authority over executive compensation, major acquisitions, and strategic direction, but these powers are theoretical given the founders' voting dominance.
Spiegel and Murphy also maintain control through carefully structured compensation agreements. Both founders receive annual compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars through stock grants and bonuses tied to performance metrics they effectively set themselves. While these compensation arrangements must be disclosed to shareholders, they cannot be blocked by non-voting shareholders who object to the amounts or structures.
The company's certificate of incorporation includes anti-takeover provisions that prevent hostile acquisitions without founder approval. No acquirer could gain control of Snap Inc. without Spiegel and Murphy agreeing to sell their Class C shares, and the conversion mechanism ensures those shares would lose their enhanced voting rights in any transfer. This makes Snap essentially acquisition-proof unless the founders choose to sell.
Additionally, the founders can sell their Class C shares into the market while retaining voting control through trust structures and other mechanisms. This allows them to diversify their personal wealth without relinquishing control of the company they built.
Snapchat's path to public markets reflects both the ambitions of its founders and the changing landscape of social media investment. The company began as "Picaboo" in 2011, a class project by Stanford students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. Brown was later pushed out in a controversial departure that resulted in a legal settlement granting him approximately $158 million worth of shares.
In the early years, Snapchat raised relatively modest venture capital. Lightspeed Venture Partners made the first institutional investment in 2012, contributing $485,000 in seed funding. This was followed by a Series A round led by Benchmark Capital that valued the company at $70 million. At the time, many observers questioned whether an app for disappearing photos could build a sustainable business model.
The company's valuation exploded through successive funding rounds. By 2013, Snap had raised a Series B at a $800 million valuation. The following year brought investment from Kleiner Perkins and others at a $10 billion valuation. This rapid appreciation reflected growing user numbers and advertisers' recognition that Snapchat had captured the attention of younger demographics increasingly difficult to reach through traditional channels.
Snap famously rejected a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook in 2013, a decision that demonstrated Spiegel and Murphy's confidence in their independent vision. The founders also turned down offers from Google and others, preferring to build Snap into a standalone company. By the time of the IPO in March 2017, Snap had raised approximately $2.6 billion in venture funding at a pre-IPO valuation of roughly $20 billion.
The IPO itself raised $3.4 billion and valued Snap at $24 billion, making it the largest U.S. tech IPO since Facebook in 2012. However, the decision to issue only non-voting shares to public investors generated significant controversy and criticism from corporate governance advocates.
The venture capital investors who backed Snapchat before its public offering earned extraordinary returns despite ultimately holding shares with limited voting rights. These early backers provided not just capital but strategic guidance during Snapchat's formative years.
Benchmark Capital, led by partner Mitch Lasky, made one of the most successful venture investments of the decade. Benchmark invested $13 million in Snapchat's Series A round in 2013 and continued participating in later rounds. By the time of the IPO, Benchmark's stake was worth several billion dollars. Lasky joined Snap's board of directors and remained an influential advisor to Spiegel and Murphy.
Lightspeed Venture Partners, which made the initial seed investment, similarly generated massive returns. Partner Jeremy Liew championed Snapchat when it was still a nascent product with an unproven business model. Lightspeed's early conviction paid off with returns estimated at over 100x their initial capital.
Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) invested $200 million in a 2015 round that valued Snap at $16 billion. While later-stage than Benchmark or Lightspeed, IVP still achieved strong returns when the company went public at a higher valuation. General Catalyst and Fidelity Investments also participated in late-stage private rounds.
Notable individual investors included Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who invested through his Kingdom Holding Company, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. These investors provided validation and connections in addition to capital. The combination of traditional Silicon Valley venture firms and later-stage growth investors created a diversified shareholder base before the IPO.
All of these investors saw their preferred shares convert to common stock at the IPO, with most receiving Class B shares that carried some voting rights. However, as many have sold their positions over time, those shares converted to non-voting Class A stock.
Snap Inc.'s governance structure represents a fundamental tension in modern capital markets between shareholder democracy and founder vision. For potential investors, this structure creates both opportunities and risks that must be carefully evaluated.
The primary advantage is that founder control theoretically allows for long-term strategic thinking without pressure from activist investors or short-term earnings demands. Spiegel and Murphy can invest in product development, user experience, and new initiatives without worrying about quarterly stock price fluctuations. They've demonstrated willingness to make unpopular decisions, such as controversial app redesigns, based on their conviction about long-term user engagement rather than immediate feedback.
This structure also provides stability. Unlike companies where proxy fights and board battles can create uncertainty, Snap's strategic direction is clear and unchangeable without founder approval. Investors who believe in Spiegel and Murphy's vision can invest knowing that vision won't be derailed by external pressures.
However, the disadvantages are substantial. Public shareholders have zero recourse if they disagree with management decisions. They cannot vote out directors, cannot influence executive compensation, and cannot force strategic changes even if the company consistently underperforms. The only option is to sell, which itself can drive down the stock price and harm all shareholders.
The structure also raises concerns about accountability. Without voting shareholders to answer to, management theoretically could make self-serving decisions regarding compensation, related-party transactions, or strategic priorities. While fiduciary duties and securities laws provide some protection, the lack of shareholder voice removes a key corporate governance check.
Several institutional investors, including the Council of Institutional Investors, have criticized Snap's structure and called for reforms. Some pension funds and sovereign wealth funds declined to participate in the IPO specifically because of the non-voting share structure. Stock indices such as S&P 500 and FTSE Russell have adjusted their rules to discourage or exclude companies with multi-class share structures.
Yes, Evan Spiegel remains a major owner of Snap Inc., holding approximately 13% of the company's economic value as of 2024. More importantly, he controls roughly 53% of voting power through Class C super-voting shares. Spiegel has sold some shares over the years, primarily to cover tax obligations, but maintains both significant ownership and absolute control over corporate decisions as CEO.
Snapchat is publicly traded through its parent company, Snap Inc., which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2017 under the ticker symbol SNAP. However, the public shares are Class A non-voting stock, meaning public investors own economic stakes but have zero voting rights. Effective control remains with founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy despite the company's public status.
Evan Spiegel is the largest individual shareholder of Snap Inc. with approximately 166 million shares representing 13% economic ownership. Among institutional investors, The Vanguard Group holds the largest position with approximately 145 million shares or 11% of the company. However, Spiegel's shares carry far more voting power due to his Class C super-voting stock.
Bobby Murphy owns approximately 11% of Snap Inc.'s economic value, holding roughly 140 million shares across Class B and Class C categories. His stake is valued at approximately $1.75 billion based on current market prices. Murphy controls about 43% of voting power through his Class C shares, making him the second-most powerful voice in corporate governance after co-founder Evan Spiegel.
Yes, anyone can buy Snap Inc. stock through standard brokerage accounts where it trades under ticker symbol SNAP. However, all publicly traded shares are Class A non-voting stock. This means investors can participate in the company's economic performance through stock price appreciation and potential dividends, but they have zero voting rights on corporate governance matters, board elections, or strategic decisions.
Snapchat's ownership structure represents one of the most founder-friendly arrangements in modern public markets. While Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy have given up majority economic ownership, they retain virtually complete control over Snap Inc.'s strategic direction and governance. This arrangement has allowed them to pursue their vision without interference from public shareholders, though it has also generated significant controversy about corporate accountability and shareholder rights. For investors, Snap represents a pure bet on founder vision, with no ability to influence outcomes beyond the decision to buy or sell. As Snapchat continues evolving its platform and competing against tech giants like Meta and TikTok, its unusual ownership structure ensures that Spiegel and Murphy will guide that evolution on their own terms.
