Fortune is reporting that Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging platform that has today become the number one free app on the App Store, has agreed to acquire Bitstrips, the folks behind popular emoji-creation service Bitmoji.
Though we haven’t received confirmation from Bitstrips or Snapchat, Fortune’s sources say that the deal is “in the ballpark” of $100 million.
The idea behind Bitmoji is simple. Users download the app and create an Avatar that represents them. They can choose from a wide range of options like face shape, hair color and cut, eye shape and color, etc. From there, Bitmoji is added as a third-party keyboard, and the app offers hundreds of options for users to send to their friends, all featuring their avatar.
Given Bitstrip’s experience with keyboard integrations and general design that people have grown to love, there are a number of options for Snapchat to integrate the service into the main Snapchat platform.
For one, Snapchat’s geofilters could become more personalized and tailored to each user. On the other hand, Snapchat could use the Bitstrips team to integrate Snapchat into the phone’s main keyboard, as Fortune suggests.
That said, neither company has commented on the deal or even confirmed its existence, so we’ll have to wait to find out more.
Bitstrips has raised a total of $11 million and is based in Toronto.
