Cloud storage company Box filed for an IPO yesterday that it hopes will raise $250m.
Industry experts believe the firm is set to go public in April, and this news comes after Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior joined the startup’s board of directors last week.
Box refused to comment on recent rumours that HP wanted to acquire the business, but CBR understands it did not act on its alleged desire.
Here’s five things you need to know as the nine-year-old company prepares to hit the stock market.
Box has 25 million registered users
It also claims 40% of Fortune 500 companies are customers, but of its user base of 225,000 organisations, just 34,000 actually pay for the storage service. Indeed, it admits that it will incur "increased losses due to upfront costs associated with acquiring new customers, particularly as a result of the limited free trial version of our service".
It’s growing rapidly
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Its staff has grown from 369 employees in January 2012 to 972 employees in January this year. Revenue has also increased massively – it jumped from $3.4m in the year ending January 2012 to $58m in Janauary 2013, to a whopping $124m in the 12 months ending January 2014.
But it is still losing a lot of money
As of January just gone, Box’s accumulated deficit stood at $361m, with $169m in losses incurred in 2013.
But the cloud storage startup claims this reflects the "substantial investments" it is making to grow its customer base and develop better services. However, this is set to continue for the foreseeable future, as CEO Aaron Levie signaled his intent to continue scaling the business.
Success could see it targeted by more cyber criminals
Box wants to become the premier enterprise storage company, encouraging customers to deposit sensitive data with it. However, it warns that increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks could hurt Box as it becomes more popular.
The filing says: "As we increase our customer base and our brand becomes more widely known and recognized, we may become more of a target for these malicious third parties."
It’s competing with Dropbox and Google
Box has a lot of rivals – from industry stalwarts like Citrix, EMC and Microsoft to newer companies like Google and Dropbox. Competitive pricing has already resulted in pricing pressures, and Box says some of its rivals have greater resources and better-known branding.
