Instagram

Reviewed acquired Updated Mar 17, 2026

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Location San Francisco, CA
Founded 2010
Latest Stage Series B
Total Raised $57.5M
Website https://instagram.com
Acquired By Meta (Facebook)
Sector
social consumer-internet mobile photo-sharing

Investors

Steve Anderson seed (2010)
Matt Cohler series-a (2011)
Roelof Botha Seed (led) (2010)
Chris Sacca Series A (2011)
Jack Dorsey Series A (2011)
Joshua Kushner Seed ($3.5M + $8M SPV) (2011)
Adam D'Angelo ~2011 (2011)
Kareem Zaki Growth (2012)
Baseline Ventures seed (2010)
Andreessen Horowitz seed (2010)
Benchmark series-a (2011)
Sequoia Capital series-b (2012)
Thrive Capital series-b (2012)
Greylock Partners series-b (2012)
Lowercase Capital Series A (2011)
independent Series A (2011)
Lowercarbon Capital Series A (2011)
quora ~2011 (2011)

Founders

Kevin Systrom CEO & Co-Founder
Mike Krieger CTO & Co-Founder

About

Instagram is a photo-sharing and social networking application co-founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010 1. The app launched on October 6, 2010, reached 1 million users within three months, and grew to over 30 million registered users by April 2012 23. Facebook (now Meta) acquired Instagram on April 9, 2012, for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock, making it one of the most notable startup acquisitions in Silicon Valley history 45.

Funding History

Date Round Amount Lead Co-investors
Mar 2010 Seed $500K Baseline Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz —
Feb 2011 Series A $7M Benchmark Baseline Ventures, Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca (Lowercase Capital), Adam D’Angelo 27
Apr 2012 Series B $50M Sequoia Capital Thrive Capital, Greylock, Benchmark 3
Apr 2012 Acquisition $1B Facebook — 45

The seed round was split evenly between Baseline Ventures (Steve Anderson) and Andreessen Horowitz, each investing $250,000 6. Andreessen Horowitz did not participate in follow-on rounds due to a conflict of interest — the firm had backed Picplz, a competing photo-sharing app 6. Benchmark’s Matt Cohler and Peter Fenton spearheaded the Series A, with Cohler joining Instagram’s board 2. The Series B closed just days before the Facebook acquisition was announced 3.

What Investors Say

“Ordinarily, when someone criticizes me for only making 312 times my money, I let the logic of their statement speak for itself.” — Ben Horowitz, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, in a blog post defending the firm’s $250K seed investment that returned $78M (April 2012) 6

“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.” — Mark Zuckerberg, announcing the acquisition of Instagram (April 2012) 5

What Founders Say

“But it turns out people are very forgiving for something they love a lot.” — Kevin Systrom, on Instagram’s first day when the site crashed multiple times (2012) 1

“This is it, we’ve built this great thing and we’ve totally messed it up.” — Mike Krieger, on launch night when servers kept crashing (2018 NPR interview) 8

“I meet too many people who care too much about money in the Valley. I never felt like Steve [Anderson] was ever worried that we were going to screw up. He may have been worried, but he showed confidence.” — Kevin Systrom, on seed investor Steve Anderson of Baseline Ventures 9

Sources

  1. “How Instagram Went From Idea to $1 Billion in Less Than Two Years,” Entrepreneur, accessed March 2026. https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/how-instagram-went-from-idea-to-1-billion-in-less-than-two/2233↩↩

  2. “Instagram Filters Through Suitors To Capture $7 Million In Funding Led By Benchmark,” TechCrunch, February 2, 2011, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/02/instagram-funding/↩↩↩

  3. “Right Before Acquisition, Instagram Closed $50M At A $500M Valuation From Sequoia, Thrive, Greylock And Benchmark,” TechCrunch, April 9, 2012, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/09/right-before-acquisition-instagram-closed-50m-at-a-500m-valuation-from-sequoia-thrive-greylock-and-benchmark/↩↩↩

  4. “Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billion, Turns Budding Rival Into Its Standalone Photo App,” TechCrunch, April 9, 2012, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/09/facebook-to-acquire-instagram-for-1-billion/↩↩

  5. “Facebook to Acquire Instagram,” Meta Newsroom, April 9, 2012, accessed March 2026. https://about.fb.com/news/2012/04/facebook-to-acquire-instagram/↩↩↩

  6. “Andreessen Horowitz Made $78M Off $250,000 Investment in Instagram,” TechCrunch, April 22, 2012, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/22/andreessen-horowitz-made-78m-off-250000-investment-in-instagram/↩↩↩

  7. “Instagram Series A — Crunchbase Funding Round Profile,” Crunchbase, accessed March 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/instagram-series-a–5c47fc2e↩

  8. “Instagram: Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger,” NPR How I Built This, January 2, 2018, accessed March 2026. https://www.npr.org/2018/01/02/562887933/instagram-kevin-systrom-mike-krieger↩

  9. “The Story of Instagram’s First Angel Investor,” Power in Numbers, Medium, accessed March 2026. https://powerinnumbers.medium.com/the-story-of-instagrams-first-angel-investor-7cacef62e46b↩