About Kik
Kik is a Telecommunications company based in Santa Monica (United States) founded in 2009 by Ted Livingston, and was acquired by MediaLab in October 2019. Multimedia messaging is enabled by Kik for mobile users. It operates on a Freemium model. Kik has raised $166.39 million across 6 funding rounds from investors including Tencent, Foundation Capital and MediaLab. The company has 56 employees. Kik has completed 4 acquisitions, including Blynk Style, GameMix and Relay. Kik was last valued at $1 billion in September 2019. Its website kik.com draws about 772 thousand monthly visits. Kik offers products and services including Kik Messaging App. Its focus areas include Technology, Software and Messaging Applications. Its legal entity is MediaLab AI Inc. Its competitors include Hyro, Rasa and Gridspace; 3 of its 3 listed competitors have raised funding.
Company details
A platform for messaging and community building is provided by Kik. Users are enabled to join public groups, interact with streamers via Kik LIVE, and make one-on-one connections. The service is focused on fostering social interactions within digital communities. Privacy and user experience are emphasized through dedicated policies. The app is designed for mobile devices and accessible globally.
- Headquarters Santa Monica, United States
- Employees 56
- Founders Ted Livingston
- Stage Acquired
- SectorsTelecommunications
- Website category Computers Electronics and Technology · Social Networks and Online Communities
- Email••••••••
- Website kik.com
- Social LinkedIn X Facebook
- Acquired by MediaLab (Oct 2019)
- Legal Name Medialab Ai Inc.
- Total Equity Funding$166.39M (USD)
in 6 rounds
- Latest Funding Round$49.59M (USD), Series D
Jul 2017
- InvestorsTencent
& 14 more
- Employee Count56
- Investments & AcquisitionsBlynk Style
& 3 more
- Acquired byMediaLab
(Oct 2019)
Products & Services of Kik
Kik offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and services, including Kik Messaging App.
A chat app for groups and communities is provided.
Apps and channels of Kik
Kik publishes 2 mobile apps with over 100M+ downloads.
Funding Insights of Kik
Kik has successfully raised a total of $166.39M across 6 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Series D round of $49.59 million completed in July 2017. This substantial capital infusion reflects strong investor confidence in the company's business model, growth potential, and market opportunities. The funding enables strategic expansion, product development, market penetration, and operational scaling to drive long-term value creation and competitive advantage.
- Total Funding $166.39M
- Total Rounds 6
- Last Round Series D — $49.59M
- First Round $1M
(Jan 2010)
- Investors Count 15
All 6 funding rounds of Kik with amounts and investors; the two latest post-money valuations are shown, the rest are part of the premium plan.
| Date | Amount | Transaction Name | Valuation | Lead Investors | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2017 | $49.59M | Series D | – | – | – |
| Jul 2015 | $50M | Series D | – | Tencent | – |
| Nov 2014 | $38.3M | Series C | – | – | |
| Apr 2013 | $19.5M | Series B | – | Foundation Capital | |
| Mar 2011 | $8M | Series A | – | RRE Ventures, Spark Capital | – |
| Jan 2010 | $1M | Seed | – | – | – |
| Date | Valuation | Stage |
|---|
Full valuation and stage history of Kik
Every valuation point, the growth-stage changes (minicorn, soonicorn, unicorn) and the dates behind them require an active premium plan.
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- Stage changes
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Last known valuation $1B (Sep 2019). 15 investors in total: 15 institutional.
Investors in Kik
Kik has secured backing from 15 investors, including institutional and venture fund investors. Prominent investors backing the company include Tencent, Foundation Capital and MediaLab.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Secondary investments in technology are managed by the firm. | mtvlp.com | New York, United States | ||
Early-stage investments are provided to transformative technology companies. | svangel.com | San Francisco, United States | ||
Venture capital firm focused on early-stage fintech, enterprise, web 3, consumer, and multiple sectors | 1995 | foundationcapital.com | Palo Alto, United States | |
VC firm investing in seed and early stage companies in the US | rre.com | New York, United States | ||
Spark Capital is engaged in venture capital investments. | sparkcapital.com | San Francisco, United States | ||
Venture capital firm focused on blockchain, wellbeing, and multiple sectors | usv.com | New York, United States | ||
Startups are built and accelerated in a structured studio environment. | acceleratorcentre.com | Waterloo, Canada | ||
Growth-stage technology companies are funded via primary and secondary investments. | gsquared.com | Chicago, United States | ||
Direct secondary investments are made in private company shares. | saintscapital.com | Denver, United States | ||
Early-stage tech startups in Canada are supported through angel investments. | 2009 | goldentriangleangelnet.ca | Kitchener, Canada |
Investor details for Kik
The complete investor list, round-by-round participation and investor portfolios require an active premium plan.
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- Investor portfolios
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People of Kik
4 people are tracked at Kik (2 in leadership, 2 in team); the tracked headcount is 56.
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Ted Livingston | Founder | Leadership |
Dany Fishel | President, Kin Ecosystem | Leadership |
Pamela Thomas | Account Manager | Team |
Mickie Lee | General Sales Manager | Team |
Complete people profiles for Kik
Full employee and board profiles, team structure, tenure and professional contact details require an active premium plan.
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Investments & Acquisitions by Kik
Kik has strategically engaged in corporate development activities, having acquired 4 companies. Notable acquisitions include Blynk Style, GameMix and Relay.
| Company Name | Description | Domain | Location | Founded | Acquired | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mobile video messaging app matching users via Facebook friendships. | rounds.com | Tel Aviv, Israel | 2008 | Jan 2017 | •••• | |
Personalized outfit recommendations are generated via mobile app swiping. | blynkstyle.com | San Francisco, United States | 2014 | Dec 2015 | •••• | |
HTML5 games are discovered and played online via the platform. | gamemix.com | Pasadena, United States | 2013 | Sep 2015 | •••• | |
Animated content is shared through iOS mobile messaging. | relay.im | Toronto, Canada | 2012 | Nov 2014 | •••• |
Complete acquisition details for Kik
Acquired stakes, deal sources and the complete acquisition history require an active premium plan.
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Timeline of Kik
9 dated milestones of Kik across 10 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded Kik is founded.
- Funding First funding round of $1.0M.
- Acquisition Acquires Relay.
- Milestone Reaches Unicorn status.
- Acquisition Acquires GameMix.
- Acquisition Acquires Blynk Style.
- Acquisition Acquires Rounds.
- Funding Latest funding round, Series D, of $49.6M.
- Exit Acquired by MediaLab.
Competitors of Kik
Kik has 3 listed competitors in our database, 3 of them funded. They include Hyro, Rasa and Gridspace.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hyro.ai | 2014 | New York, United States | $114.6M | An AI-based conversational platform is provided for healthcare task automation. | ||
| rasa.com | 2016 | San Francisco, United States | $83.4M | 26 | Open source machine learning tools for conversational AI are provided. | |
| gridspace.com | 2012 | California, United States | $7.6M | 31 | Cloud based platform offering speech analytics solutions |
Detailed competitors of Kik
The full competitor set, operating metrics and side-by-side benchmarks require an active premium plan.
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Web traffic of Kik
The website of Kik (kik.com) receives about 772.2K visits a month and ranks #68,499 among all websites worldwide, #8,121 in Social Networks and Online Communities.
- Monthly visits772.2K
- Unique visitors393.9K
per month
- Global rank#68,499
among all websites
- Category rank#8,121
Computers Electronics and Technology · Social Networks and Online Communities
- Bounce rate48%
- Pages per visit2.7
- Average visit1 min 27 sec
- DevicesDesktop 15% · Mobile 85%
Websites whose visitors overlap most with Kik. Affinity shows how closely the audiences match.
| Website | Domain | Audience affinity | Monthly visits | Global rank | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| instagram.com | 100% | 7.1B | #4 | View details | |
kikfriends.com | kikfriends.com | 86% | – | ||
| twitter.com | 84% | View details | |||
| discord.com | 72% | 619.2M | #46 | View details | |
| tiktok.com | 72% | 3.2B | #7 | View details | |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
All 38 similar websites and full traffic analytics for Kik
The complete similar-websites list, audience overlap and engagement analytics require an active premium plan.
- 38 similar websites
- Audience overlap
- Engagement analytics
- Traffic by brand
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Top companies in Communication Apps
3 companies that operate in the same segment as Kik (Communication Apps) in United States, ranked by their profile score on The Company Check.
| Company | Description | Founded | Location | Total funding | Revenue | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Family and friends are connected through location-sharing mobile app. | 2008 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 89.74 M | USD 489.48 M | 569 | |
Live-streaming platform for user connections and content monetization is provided. | 2009 | Mountain View, California, United States | USD 373.44 M | 842 | ||
Secure private messaging and multimedia sharing are facilitated worldwide. | 2009 | Menlo Park, California, United States | USD 58.25 M | USD 19.89 M | 6,121 |
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Related news about Kik
Complete news archive for Kik
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Frequently Asked Questions about Kik
Kik was founded in 2009 and raised its 1st funding round 1 year after it was founded.
Kik is headquartered in Santa Monica, United States. It is registered at Santa Monica, California, United States.
Kik is a funded company, having raised a total of $166.39M across 6 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a Seed of $1M, raised on Jan 2010.
Kik has 56 employees.
A platform for messaging and community building is provided by Kik. Users are enabled to join public groups, interact with streamers via Kik LIVE, and make one-on-one connections. The service is focused on fostering social interactions within digital communities. Privacy and user experience are emphasized through dedicated policies. The app is designed for mobile devices and accessible globally.
Kik offers Kik Messaging App.
Kik has made 4 acquisitions, including Blynk Style, GameMix, and Relay.
Kik has 15 investors. Key investors include Tencent, Foundation Capital, MediaLab, Millennium Technology Value Partners, and SV Angel.
The valuation of Kik is $1B as of Sep 2019.
Kik operates through Medialab Ai Inc..
Yes. Kik was acquired by MediaLab in October 2019.