Website Hosting Services Provider Squarespace Plans Early 2021 IPO: Report

New York-headquartered web hosting services company, Squarespace Inc is planning an initial public offering in the first half of the next year, according to Bloomberg.

What Happened: Squarespace is already in talks with certain banks for financial advisory and a selection is expected sometime this month, based on inputs from sources, as per Bloomberg.

In its secondary market funding round in December 2017, equity firm General Atlantic invested $200 million. At the time, Squarespace’s valuation was close to $1.7 billion, as per Bloomberg. Whereas Crunchbase, based on research by PrivCo, estimates the post-money valuation to be between $1 billion to $10 billion.

Based on performance trends, the company is expected to value its IPO above the 2017 threshold.

Why Does It Matter: In early October, the Financial Times reported that the company hired Marcela Martin as the new CFO to stay on track with the IPO plans.  Before Squarespace, Martin was engaged as the CFO for travel fare aggregator, Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG).

Since its inception in 2003, Squarespace has raised $278.5 million from three funding rounds, according to Crunchbase. Prior to the 2017 investment, General Atlantic invested $40 million in the Series B funding round in April 2014. Growth stage venture capital firms, Accel and Index Ventures, were the lead investors in the Series A funding round that raised $38.5 million in July 2010.