Companies may be preparing for an IPO

The cloud service Dropbox secured another $500 million in funding, bringing the total investment in the company to $1.1 billion. The Square payment system also announced its intention to raise about $200 million.

According to The Financial Times , two large American Internet projects have announced they are raising additional capital.

Cloud storage service Dropbox has secured another $500 million in debt financing, making it one of the top private Internet companies in the United States in terms of capitalization. The total amount of investments raised in Drew Houston's company now amounts to about $1.1 billion. Earlier this year, Dropbox held an investment round, during which the company managed to secure funding for $250 million. The group of investors was then led by the international investment fund BlackRock. The company itself was valued at $10 billion.

Another major Internet project actively seeking additional funding is the Square payment system, which specializes in mobile payments. FT sources say the company intends to raise about $200 million. This will be the fifth round of additional financing for the company, which is valued by investors at $5 billion.

Such an increase in capital can serve as indirect evidence of the impending listing of both companies. However, so far representatives of American startups have not given any comments on this matter. According to sources at The Financial Times, Dropbox is unlikely to hold an IPO before next year. Square is also not yet ready to go public, experts say.

How much is Dropbox valued?

The cloud storage service Dropbox held another investment round in January, during which it raised $250 million in funding. The group of investors who invested in Dropbox was led by the international investment fund BlackRock. Based on the results of the investment round, the entire company was valued at $10 billion. Read more

How Square was launched

Jack Dorsey launched the Square project in 2009, when he temporarily stepped away from the direct management of Twitter. With the help of a miniature card reader inserted into the headphone jack on an iPhone or smartphone running Android OS, and a downloaded free program for accepting payments, anyone can accept payments to their personal account. After the client swipes the card through the card reader and signs on the screen of the same smartphone as confirmation, the program verifies the signature and credits the payment. Read more

Kirill Sarkhanyants

Dropbox and Square attract new investment