Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, who owns a controlling stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer and the maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois, invested in Snapchat's last funding round in late May. Lemann, who also owns stakes in H.J. Heinz & Company and Burger King, made the investment through one of his private funds. He is also a partner in private equity firm 3G Capital, along with his longtime friends Carlos Sicupira and Marcel Telles.
There is no information as of how much money he invested in the messaging app's Series F round, which raised $1.8 billion according to a regulatory filing on May 26, including $650 million raised last year and an additional $1.2 billion raised this year, and valued the company at $18 billion.
According to reports, Snapchat's revenues in 2015 totaled $60 million, while predictions for this year's earnings show substantial growth and are between $250 million and $350 million, and between $500 million and $1 billion for 2017.
Lemann, who is Brazil's richest man and the world’s 19th richest person, and is reportedly worth $31.5 billion, also controls the online retail company B2W, which operates mostly in Brazil and other South American countries like Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
Role model
The Brazilian billionaire is no stranger to Snapchat's co-founder and largest shareholder, Evan Spiegel. Late last year, and after reading Brazilian author Francisco Souza Homem de Mello's The 3G Way -- a book about the management style of Lemann, Sicupira and Telles and their appetite for American brands -- Spiegel reportedly purchased several copies of the book for Snapchat's senior executives, in order to inspire them with the trio's successful business endeavors.
Trouble ahead?
Not everybody at Snapchat liked the idea of Spiegel having Lemann as a model though. According to Dealbreaker.com, “people got very scared at Snapchat, because Lemann and his partners from 3G Capital are known for having 'raided' many companies, like Anheuser-Busch, Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Kraft Heinz, firing thousands and thousands of employees in each of these companies." A source at Snapchat was quoted by the site saying that "His [Lemann's] is a VERY fierce meritocratic culture. People are pretty scared Evan wants to do the same here.”
They might be even more scared now that Lemann has an interest in the app.
