Square, a US-based mobile payment technology provider backed by several corporate investors, has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The company is working with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase on the offering, which a person familiar with the matter told Forbes is likely to take place in autumn 2015.
Founded in 2008, Square’s core product is the Square Reader, a device that enables merchants to accept credit card payments through mobile devices.
The company has since introduced a more thorough point of sale system called the Square Stand and several services ranging from money transfer and payroll processing to small business financing. It has also acquired meal delivery services Caviar and Fastbite in the past year.
Square processed about $30bn in transactions for its client merchants in 2014, but the fact it has filed confidentially for is IPO under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act indicates its revenue for now remains under $1bn.
News of the imminent IPO comes after Square raised $150m at a $6bn valuation in an October 2014 series F round led by Singaporean state-backed fund GIC that also included investment bank Goldman Sachs and investment firm Rizvi Traverse Management.
Square has raised more than $490m in total equity, including $200m in series D funding in 2012, at a $3.3bn valuation, from investors including Citi Ventures, the strategic investment arm of financial services firm Citi, as well as coffee chain Starbucks and Ritzi Traverse.
The company’s other backers include payment services firm Visa, which invested an undisclosed sum in 2011, investment firm Tiger Global Management, venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla Ventures and GGV Capital, and entrepreneur Richard Branson.