Sequoia invests another $50 million in Series B round, valuing WhatsApp at $1.5 billion. WhatsApp's user base swells to about 200 million active users and its staff to 50. The WhatsApp support staff announce that messages were encrypted in the 'latest version' of the WhatsApp software for iOS and Android (but not BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian), without specifying the cryptographic method. Īn unknown hacker publishes a website that makes it possible to change the status of an arbitrary WhatsApp user, as long as the phone number was known. In Series A round, WhatsApp founders agree to take $8 million from Sequoia Capital on top of their $250,000 seed funding, after months of negotiation with Sequoia partner Jim Goetz.
It eventually becomes very popular in China. WhatsApp support for Android OS is added. WhatsApp for the iPhone is updated to send photos. īrian Acton persuades five ex-Yahoo! friends to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and is granted co-founder status. WhatsApp 2.0 is released on the App Store for the iPhone.
The following is a timeline of WhatsApp, a proprietary cross-platform, encrypted, instant messaging client for smartphones.
