Pinterest secretly decides to go public in 2019

Visual search engine Pinterest is going to participate in the race of companies planning to go public in 2019. As per The Wall Street Journal, the company has secretly filed for IPO submitting paperwork to the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, Pinterest has refused to comment on the news.

Founded in 2008 by Ben Silbermann, the search engine has become popular for its creative display of information, particularly using images. The company had decided to debut on the stock market last year in April. Better late than never, it took its first official step to go public in 2019 by hiring Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as lead underwriters for its public offering.

With over 250 million active users monthly, the search engine site was valued at $12.3 billion in 2017. The company raised $1.5 billion in venture capital funding from key stakeholders Andreessen Horowitz,Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital,SV Angel, and Fidelity. In 2018, the ad revenue earned the company some $700 million which is as per reports, a 50% increase year-over-year.

The company currently has 1,600 employees across 13 cities including London, Paris, Chicago,Berlin etc.Other venture-backed tech firms are expected to launch initial public offerings this year including ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft, and the workplace messaging firm Slack. All these companies have confidentially filed paperwork for IPOs. A law was passed in 2012 which allows certain companies to file confidentially, allowing startups to initiate the process of raising capital before releasing detailed financial information.