US-based file storage platform Dropbox has confidentially filed for an initial public offering that would enable enterprise software producer Salesforce to exit, Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have been selected to lead the underwriting, and Dropbox is in talks with other banks to join them, the sources said.
Founded in 2007, Dropbox operates a cloud-based storage platform with more than 500 million users, 200,000 of which are businesses, and is increasingly moving into business collaboration software.
Drew Houston, Dropbox’s co-founder and CEO, said in January 2017 the company had a achieved $1bn in annualised sales, and three months later revealed it had become profitable, excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.
Dropbox was valued at $10bn, as of its last equity funding round, a $350m round in 2014 featuring Allen & Company, Sequoia Capital and Goldman Sachs and, according to the Wall Street Journal, BlackRock, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley.
Salesforce’s corporate venturing arm, Salesforce Ventures, is one of the company’s backers but has not revealed when it invested. Other investors include Index Ventures, Benchmark, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, RIT Capital Partners and Valiant Capital Partners.
The company has raised more than $600m in equity funding in total, and secured a $500m credit line led by JP Morgan in 2014. JP Morgan, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie and Royal Bank of Canada supplied a $600m credit line in March 2017.