Squarespace Files for IPO

Squarespace revealed this afternoon its intention to become a publicly traded company. The online platform for building and hosting websites has previously secured funding through Series A and B investment rounds in 2010 and 2014, respectively. Crunchbase reports that these funding rounds totaled $78.5 million.

However, Squarespace is particularly recognized for a substantial $200 million secondary investment completed in 2017, provided by General Atlantic. A secondary investment involves an outside investor purchasing shares from current shareholders, rather than the company creating new shares. Certain private companies utilize these transactions when they don’t require further capital but aren’t immediately preparing for an initial public offering.

This 2017 transaction aligns with the company’s now-approaching 2021 IPO.

TechCrunch previously reported the company’s revenue was approximately $300 million and that it operated with profitability.

With this filing, Squarespace becomes part of an increasing number of companies entering the public market in recent months. Late in 2020, C3.ai, DoorDash, and Airbnb went public. Early 2021 saw successful listings from Affirm and Poshmark. Coinbase has submitted its filing, Robinhood is anticipated to launch an IPO, and now Squarespace is also joining the process.

The Squarespace filing is currently confidential, meaning a complete, publicly available S-1 document will be released at a later date. The company itself described the current situation as follows:

Given Squarespace’s position as a software provider, a cloud-based service, and a participant in the e-commerce sector, it is reasonable to anticipate strong investor demand when it officially files, prices, and lists its shares.¹ It has been some time since a highly successful software IPO.

We commend Squarespace for providing a welcome change of pace in the news cycle. We will now resume our break.

¹This statement is intended as sarcasm.