Box raises $150 million round at $2.4B valuation

Box has filed to go public, and raising new money may allow it to delay until September

(Updated with confirmation from Box)

Cloud storage company Box filed for its IPO back in March, and is widely expected to go public sometime this summer. Most of the time, a company that is about to go public does not go out and raise a whole lot of new capital, but that apparently is not stopping Box from doing just that.

Box has raised $150 million round in a new funding round private-equity firm TPG and hedge fund Coatue Management, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Monday. 

Prior to this round, the company had raised $409 million from DFJ, Scale Venture Partners, US Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Emergence Capital Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce, and General Atlantic. It most recently raised a $100 million funding round at a $2 billion valuation.

The company has now raised $559 million, and is now reportedly valued at $2.4 billion.

So why would Box feel the need to raise new funding at this point? Perhaps to put put off the eventual IPO. In May, reports came out that the company was delaying going public due to a weaken market around cloud companies such as Workday, Veeva Systems and Xero.

According to the Wall Street Journal, raising new funding will allow Box to extend the time it can continue to delay the IPO, which may not happen until after Labor Day. 

Of course, raising money is a double edged sword: yeah, it  gives more felxability on time, but, at the same time, with a higher valuation, the expectations for Box's IPO will now be even higher than before.

Box's IPO

The company revealed in its S-1 that it is looking to raise $250 million in its offering, and that it will list as "Box" on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company more than doubled its revenue last year, ending the fiscal year on January 31, 2014 with $124 million, up from $58.8 million the year before. At the same time, the company saw a net loss of $168.6 million for the same 12-month period, up from a loss of $112.6 million for the year prior.

Those losses are primarily being driven by Box's sales and marketing expenses, which added up to over $171 million last year, up from $99 million in 2012. That is nearly four times as much as it spent on its next highest expense: research and development, which only cost the company $45 million.

Overall, Box has now a total accumulated deficit of $361.2 million.

Update:

Box has officially announced the funding round. In addition to the prior news, it was also revealed that TPG Growth will be appointng an unnamed director to the Box Board of Directors. 

"Our plan continues to be to go public when it makes the most sense for Box and the market. As always, investing in our customers, technology, and future growth remains our top priority,"  a Box spokesperson told me. "TPG and Coatue have great track records with growth companies like Box and we're excited to work with them as we execute on our strategy."

(Image source: grabi.org)