Apttus Is Said to Work With Goldman Sachs as Tech IPO List Grows
Apttus is one of the 200 privately held tech companies valued at $1 billion or more, according to CB Insights.
(Bloomberg) -- Apttus Corp., adding to a growing roster of technology businesses expected to reach the stock market, is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on initial public offering plans, people familiar with the situation said.
The company, whose software helps manage sales and contracts, had a valuation of $1.75 billion in a funding round last month, according to CB Insights. Goldman Sachs advised Apttus on a $55 million private stake sale that brought that total funding to $329 million, according to a statement at the time. The people familiar with Apttus’s IPO plans asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
Representatives for Apttus and Goldman Sachs didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Apttus, based in San Mateo, California, helps salespeople quickly calculate the best prices for products and services and move toward closing deals. Its products also cover billing and renewals.
After a quiet summer, a spattering of business software companies have moved toward public markets. ForeScout Technologies Inc., a cybersecurity company, filed for an IPO this month, a year after it was said to have hired advisers for the deal. Fellow cybersecurity company Zscaler Inc. has hired Morgan Stanley to go public by the end of the year, people familiar with that matter said in September.
Apttus is among the more than 200 tech unicorns, privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more in funding rounds, according to CB Insights. Such companies have proliferated in Silicon Valley because investors competing for stakes have pushed up valuations as well as provided cash, which in turn has allowed some businesses to hold off on IPO plans.
A longtime Salesforce.com Inc. partner, Apttus has been at the heart of a shake-up among application software competitors. Last year, Salesforce paid about $350 million for SteelBrick Inc., creating a bigger competitor for Apttus. Apttus then signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp., expanding its base of potential customers. Still, Salesforce Ventures invested in Apttus’s funding round in September.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net, Alex Barinka in New York at abarinka2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Molly Schuetz