Square closes funding round at $150 million

With this latest round, the company is now valued at $6 billion

(Updated with comment from Square)

A few weeks ago it was revealed that e-commmerce payments company Square was raising a new round of funding, of at least $100 million, at a $6 billion valuation.

The round, however, was not closed at the time so, while the valuation was spot on, it seems, the actual size of the round turned to be a bit higher than previously reported.

The company has now closed the round at $150 million, a sources told the New York Times on Sunday. The round was ed by new investor the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, and featured previous investors, including Goldman Sachs and Rizvi Traverse Management.

“We stand for independent businesses and will continue to invest aggressively to empower them with tools that help them grow," a Square spokesperson told VatorNews when we inquired about the report. 

Since it was founded in 2009, Square has raised over $440 million in funding, include getting $200 million in a revolving credit line with Goldman Sachs leading the deal and Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, and Silicon Valley Bank also participating.  The company most recently raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Victory Park Capital to expand Square Capital, its cash advance service. This new funding round would put it at at least $590 million.

Square is often-rumored to be heading toward an IPO. The company was said to entertaining the thought of an IPO this year. The rumors were making their rounds—supposedly of talks with banks, like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. And Square hired former Salesforce.com exec Sarah Friar as its new CFO last year.

Dorsey, however, scuttled those plans in February due to problems with revenue. Namely, the company is not profitable. With such a valuation, though, it seems likely that the company will go public sooner or later.

There could be one other issue for Square: new competition in the form of Apple Pay, Apple's new NFC payment app that it launched last month as well as Amazon launching its own credit card reader in August. Then there is the split between eBay and PayPal that happened last week, a move that some believe could be a boon for PayPal, therefore giving Square even greater competition.

With all of these big moves happening, Square has been recently been looking to expand its services, including Square Capital, which was launched in May of this year. The company has also expanded into appointment-booking with the purchase of BookFresh, and food delivery with the launch of Square Order, followed by the purchase of Caviar in August.

(Image source: squareup.com)