Snap Inc., owner of Snapchat, files for $3B US IPO

Snap Inc., owner of popular messaging service Snapchat, made many of its financial details public for the first time on Thursday as it prepared to raise up to $3 billion US in an initial public offering.

The Los Angeles-based company said it generated $404.5 million in sales in 2016, up from $58.7 million in 2015. It had a net loss of $514.6 million in 2016, up from a net loss of $372.9 million in 2015.

Snap expects to go public as soon as March and could be valued at between $20 billion and $25 billion, sources familiar with the situation have said. That would give the company the richest valuation in a U.S. technology IPO since Facebook Inc.

Snap said it will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "SNAP".