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Many tech entrepreneurs still dream of going public, making millions of dollars and playing in the big leagues. Then there’s SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, who thinks it would be a nightmare.
The fast-growing startup, which performs online surveys, said yesterday it had raised $800 million to buy back stock from employees and early investors and put off going public.
“This transaction affords us all of the capital benefits of a public offering without the costs and distractions of an IPO and the demands of operating as a public company,” Goldberg said in a statement.
Goldberg is probably best known as the husband of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who helped lead the social network during its choppy ride to becoming a public company.
Goldberg significantly upped his stake in SurveyMonkey through this funding round, which also included heavy hitters like Google and Tiger Global.
Earlier investors saw some sizable returns from the deal, including Spectrum Equity Investors and Bain Capital Ventures, which bought a 60 percent stake in the company in 2009.
SurveyMonkey, based in Palo Alto, Calif., said the new deal values it at $1.35 billion. The company doesn’t provide figures but says it has been profitable since its very start in 1999.
Revenue topped $100 million for the first time last year, up from about $50 million in 2011, according to PrivCo figures.
The deal was billed as “one of the largest capital raises by a privately held US Internet company.”