Snap’s Map Czar: In Five Years, Everyone Will Use Location Sharing

Zenly CEO Antoine Martin was on a weekend trip to Aspen, Colorado, in 2016 when an investor introduced him to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel over lunch. The two founders hit it off, and the next year, Snap bought Martin’s mapping app for $213 million.

That deal, still Snap’s largest, rankled some Snap executives and investors who had watched Snap’s stock dive from its public listing price a couple months prior. It didn’t help that Snap had nearly finished its own, similar product when it bought Zenly, which allows users to connect with friends on a whimsical map. But four years later, Snap has largely earned back Wall Street’s goodwill. And Zenly has quietly flourished on its own.