Box Still Plans For IPO After Revenue Boost

Box says it is firmly committed to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) after reporting revenue increases of 80 percent in the first three quarters of its financial year.

The company was widely expected to launch its IPO earlier this year after submitting an S-1 filing, a document that must be completed by all firms in the US wishing to list publicly, with the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in March.

However, uncertainty in the market caused it to delay these plans in favour of an additional round of private funding and Box’s floatation is not expected to happen until 2015.

Box IPO

Box has now updated its S-1 with its nine month results, showing that revenue has risen year-on-year from $85m to $154 million during the period, as the number of paying customers jumped from 34,000 to 44,000.

However the cloud specialist is still not profitable, recording a three-quarter loss of $121.5m – although this is less than the $125.2m it lost during the same time last year. These losses can be partly explained by high sales and marketing costs, which were one of the main concerns about its initial S-1, although they are now less than revenue.

Such expenditure is vital for Box, whose business strategy involves luring in users with free storage before converting them into paid users. It now has 32 million users at 275,000 organisations.

“Our plan continues to be to go public when it makes the most sense for Box and the market,” said a Box spokesperson. “As always, investing in our customers, technology, and future growth remains our top priority.”

Earlier this year, Box COO Dan Levin told TechWeekEurope that the company would go public at an “appropriate time” with stronger investor confidence following the latest round of funding.

“We were a little unfortunate with the timing of the unveiling of our S-1 in late March, but we continue to be very pleased with the performance of the business,” he said the firm’s Boxworks event in San Francisco in September. “We continue to feel that the credibility and visibility of being a listed company is important for an enterprise software company and it’s a path we’re on.”

How much do you know about the cloud? Try our quiz!