Twitter Inc. held acquisition talks with audio-based social app Clubhouse in a deal that would have valued the company at $4 billion, Bloomberg reported today.

The talks are described as having taken place in recent months but are no longer ongoing. Why the talks didn’t progress further is unknown.

Founded in March 2020, Clubhouse is an audio-based social app that allows users to join group chats spontaneously. On its Apple App Store page, it describes itself as a “space for casual, drop-in audio conversations — with friends and other interesting people around the world.”

That Twitter took an interest in acquiring Clubhouse, formally named Alpha Exploration Co., is not without a sense of deja vu: Clubhouse’s rapid growth and general buzz is very similar to the early days of Twitter and its initial rapid rise.

Where Clubhouse differs is that it has seen its user numbers rise and its intense buzz all while not yet open to the general public and only available for Apple Inc. devices running iOS.

Despite essentially being a closed shop that excludes billions of users worldwide, venture capital funds like what they see. Clubhouse last raised approximately $100 million in January on an estimated valuation of around $1 billion. Clubhouse had previously raised $12 million in a Series A round on a $100 million valuation last May.

To go from a $100 million valuation to $4 billion in just under a year is not unprecedented but it’s still somewhat rare among tech startups, particularly for a service that is only open via invite and seemingly has little to no revenue coming through the door. Clubhouse did announce a new feature called Clubhouse Payments April 5 that allows users to send money to creators, but the company is seemingly not yet taking a cut from the creators.

The $4 billion valuation may be coming soon as well, since the Bloomberg report notes that Clubhouse is now trying to raise additional venture capital on that valuation.

Clubhouse investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Kortschak Investments, Tim Kendall and Scott Belsky, according to Crunchbase.

Image: Clubhouse