Who Created Discord and When
Discord was created by Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy. Citron is the co-founder and CEO of Discord, while Vishnevskiy serves as the co-founder and CTO. The platform launched in May 2015 as a voice and text chat app designed for gamers, and it quickly expanded beyond gaming into a general community and communication tool.
Before Discord, Jason Citron founded OpenFeint, a social gaming platform for mobile games, which he sold to GREE in 2011 for $104 million. He later founded Hammer & Chisel, a game development studio, which pivoted into building Discord after noticing that existing voice chat tools for games were often unreliable and difficult to use.
Discord Ownership, Funding, and Valuation
Discord is a privately held company, not publicly traded. As of the latest available data, Discord has raised more than $650 million in funding from investors such as Tencent, Index Ventures, and Greylock Partners. The company's valuation has been estimated at over $15 billion in recent funding rounds.
Discord generates revenue primarily through its Discord Nitro subscription service, which offers enhanced features such as custom emojis, animated avatars, and higher upload limits. The platform also earns money through game sales and server boosts, while maintaining a free tier that remains its core user experience.
Discord User Growth and Platform Reach
Discord has grown to over 200 million monthly active users, with millions of servers created across categories such as gaming, education, art, and professional communities. The platform is widely used by content creators, esports teams, and businesses as an alternative to traditional communication tools.
Discord is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and web browsers, making it one of the most accessible voice and chat platforms. Its open API and bot ecosystem allow developers to build custom integrations, and its role-based permissions system has made it a standard for online community management.