US-based online survey provider SurveyMonkey is set to launch an initial public offering later this year that would enable internet technology group Alphabet to exit, Recode reported yesterday.
SurveyMonkey allows individual users and businesses to create and fine tune online surveys and opinion polls, and to analyse the answers in depth to detect useful information. It claims 3 million people use the platform each day.
Founded in 1999, the company was acquired by private equity firm Spectrum Equity 10 years later. It subsequently raised $800m in debt and equity financing in a 2013 round that featured the first investment by Alphabet’s growth capital unit, CapitalG.
CapitalG participated in the $444m equity portion of the round together with Tiger Global Management and SurveyMonkey’s then CEO Dave Goldberg, buying shares from existing investors at a $1.35bn valuation.
SurveyMonkey raised $250m the following year at a $2bn valuation, from Capital G (then Google Capital), Goldberg, Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Baillie Gifford, Iconiq Capital, Social Capital, Laurel Crown Partners, and private investors Ryan and Chris Finley.
Salesforce Ventures, the corporate venture capital subsidiary of enterprise software provider Salesforce, is also an investor in SurveyMonkey, but has not provided details of its funding.
The company is yet to select banks for the prospective offering, but discussions are “heating up,” a source told Recode. A different source suggested it may look to make a last-minute ‘bolt-on’ acquisition to boost its valuation pre-IPO.
The flotation could hypothetically be one of several large IPOs this year, with electronics producer Xiaomi, file storage platform Dropbox and music streaming platform Spotify all having begun the process, according to reports in the past few months.