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Snapchat is worth 25 percent less than its current valuation of $16 billion, according to one of its biggest investors. Mutual fund Fidelity, which invested in Snapchat’s latest $538 million round, dropped its share valuation to $22.91 at the end of September after marking them at $30.72 in June. The news was reported by financial analyst firm Morningstar and picked up by the Financial Times.
Snapchat declined to comment for this story.
The decrease in valuation comes as Snapchat faces volatility in its ranks. It has lost a flood of high-profile executives in recent months — its engineering VP, COO, head of monetization, HR chief and chief talent officer. Most recently, Jill Hazelbaker, its head of policy and communications, departed for ride-hailing company Uber.
The picture-sharing application isn’t the only one to have its valuation questioned in recent months. In October, both Fidelity and the hedge fund BlackRock downgraded Dropbox’s valuation to $8 billion, compared to its previous $10 billion valuation.
Public market fluctuation plays a role in these funds’ calculations of private market valuations. When the market caps of public companies in similar industries contract, the funds’ are likely to lower their expectations for their comparable private investments.
There’s a growing sense in Silicon Valley that the era of big valuations for private companies is drawing to a close.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
