Snapchat co-founders Bobby Murphy, left, and Evan Spiegel ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange as the company celebrates its IPO (AP)

A California high school has made millions of dollars from the initial public offering of shares in Snap Inc, the company behind the Snapchat photo messaging app.

Simon Chiu, the president of Saint Francis high school in Mountainview, said the school board agreed to invest 15,000 dollars in seed money in Snap in 2012, when the company was just getting started.

They had been invited to do so by one of the students' parents, who was a venture capital investor.

Snap shares sold for 17 dollars (£14) each in an IPO this week and their price rocketed 44% higher when trading began on Thursday.

The school was quoted by media including Quartz as saying they sold two-thirds of their shares at 17 dollars each, to raise 24 million dollars (£19.6 million).

AP

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