Is Dropbox gunning for an US$8bn valuation?

19 Nov 2013

Pictured: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston

Cloud storage player Dropbox – whose CEO Drew Houston recently told the Dublin Web Summit that the company hasn’t touched a cent of the US$250m in funding raised so far – is reportedly looking to raise a further US$250m.

It is understood that if the company seeks US$250m it could be looking at a valuation north of US$8bn, according to BusinessWeek.

This is more than double the last valuation of US$4bn when Dropbox raised funding in 2011.

The company has so far raised more than US$257m in total.

The company was originally seeded by Y Combinator with follow on seed funding of US$1.2m from Sequoia Capital and Pejman Nozad.

This was followed in 2008 by a US$6m funding round led by Sequoia and Accel Partners.

A US$250m funding round last year saw U2 rockers Bono and the Edge join Sequoia, Accel Goldman Sachs and a consortium of veteran Silicon Valley investors, including Greylock Partners and Benchmark as investors in Dropbox.

In recent weeks at the Dublin Web Summit Houston said: “Even when we raised US$250m we haven’t spent it – we were already profitable. We don’t need capital so we have the flexibility. It certainly helps in terms of currency and makes it easier to acquire companies, but the list isn’t long,” Houston said, referring to the company’s acquisitions of Foundry Hiring, Endorse, Mailbox, TapEngage, Snapjoy, Audiogalaxy and Cove.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com