Kik was founded in 2009, when a small group of University of Waterloo students decided to build a company that would shift the center of computing from the PC to the phone.

Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company now has more than 100 employees working on Kik, a chat app that lets users connect with people, services, and businesses.

Kik is backed by major venture capitalists and has raised $120.5M to date. Its VCs are the same firms that first helped Twitter, Foursquare, Zynga and others become household names. China’s Tencent, maker of WeChat, is a strategic investor.

Kik has more than 240 million registered users. According to a study by Frank N. Magid Associates, Kik users spend 35 minutes per session in the app.

Ted Livingston is the founder and CEO of Kik, a chat network with more than 240 million registered users and 40 percent of U.S. teens. Founded in 2009, Kik is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, and has raised $120.5 million from investors including Tencent and Union Square Ventures. Ted also maintains an active interest in the University of Waterloo’s Velocity Fund, a startup accelerator he conceived of and first funded.