Dropbox looks to raise $450 million in Series C funding

The cloud storage company has already raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation

Is 2014 going to be the year of cloud storage? It is certainly looking that way so far.

With reports already out that Box has filed a confidential IPO in order to go public this year, now news has out that might just indicate that one of its biggest competitors, Dropbox, could be ready to go ahead as well.

The company has raised $350 million of a Series C offering worth as much as $450 million, a source close to Dropbox has confirmed to VatorNews. The round is currently still open. 

A Form D, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, showed that the company has so far raised $325 million, but I am told that the reason for the discrepancy is because the form only includes money raised from institutional investors, with the other $25 million coming from strategic investors that were not included on the form.

Those institutional investors include Allen and Company and Goldman Sachs, who earned $8.125 million in sales commissions and finders fees expenses.

The strategic investors are existing investors in the company, sources confirmed. Dropbox had previously raised $257.2 million to date from investors like Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Goldman Sachs.

It most recently took on $250 million from Benchmark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, RIT Capital Partners and Valiant Capital Partners in October 2011. 

This latest round pushes its total fundraising to $607 million in total, with a chance of going at high as $707 million if Dropbox fills out the rest of the offering. 

 This latest information shows the company is looking to raise much more money than previously thought; reports came out last month that the company was looking to raise $250 at an $8 billion valuation. The $350 million that the company has now raised has put its value at $10 billion.

The company has long been rumored to be an IPO candidate, and this round puts its valuation high above that of Box, which reportedly raised a $100 million round at a valuation of $2 billion in November of last year. 

Its also worth noting that Dropbox is deepening its ties with insitutional investors who could become underwriters for an IPO.

Dropbox's revenue for 2013 is expected to have come in just north of $200 million, according to insiders. The company generated $116 million in revenue in 2012 and $46 million in 2011.

The new money that the company has raised will go toward continuing to invest in its growth, as well as  international expansion and building out its user experience for both personal, and enterprise, clients. 

A Dropbox spokesperon would not comment on the filing, nor any plans that the company might have to go public this year.

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