As IPO fever grips Silicon Valley companies, Cloud storage and collaboration tools provider Dropbox, which closed a $250 round of funding, is the latest US firm to receive a mega valuation of $10 billion.
Analysts had forecast a valuation of about $8 billion.
The latest fundraising, in which Index Ventures is believed to have taken part, was led by the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock Inc.
Experts believe this latest round of fundraising was the last before Dropbox goes public. According to the Telegraph, competition for the deal was fierce.
Since 2011, when Dropbox did its last round of funding, its valuation has more than doubled from $4 billion. The San Francisco-based company has so far raised more than $800 million.
Dropbox expected to grow significantly
The valuation predicts considerable growth for the company. In 2012, Dropbox’ turnover was approximately $110 million. This year it expects sales to exceed $200 million.
Most Dropbox services are free of charge, with some customers paying a $10 monthly fee for greater storage space.
Among the tech companies aiming to go public in California, Dropbox is definitely the most valuable.
According to Market Watch, this latest round of funding will speed up Dropbox’ Chief Executive and co-founder Drew Houston’s push into business software.
Dropbox grew tenfold over last two years
Dropbox claims to have more than 200 million users, a tenfold increase over a two-year period. Since the end of 2010, its revenues are twenty times greater. The company says over four million businesses use their security and other premium features.
Box Inc., a rival of Dropbox, secured $100 in funding in December 2013, giving it a valuation of $2 billion.
Ben Kepes wrote in Forbes that it will be interesting to see which of the two arch rivals – Dropbox or Box – can best capitalize on the market opportunity. Box with its top-down approach and the rapport it has with the enterprise C-suite, or Dropbox which has secured bigger users, is easier to use, plus its viral conversion.
Early in 2013, a BlockRock fund led a late stage Twitter fundraising investment at a valuation of $9 billion. After it went public in November 2013, Twitter’s market capitalization has reached nearly $35 billion.