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Sequoia-Backed Qualtrics Interviews Banks for 2018 IPO

Sequoia-Backed Qualtrics Interviews Banks for 2018 IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Qualtrics LLC, an enterprise software company backed by Sequoia, is interviewing bankers to help take it public, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company, which was valued at $2.5 billion in a 2017 private funding round, could list as soon as this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

Qualtrics joins a rush of technology and internet companies pursuing U.S. IPOs. Thirty-four technology and communications businesses have listed in New York this year to raise $11.5 billion, just shy of the 40 listings that sold $12.8 billion in stock in all of 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Companies including Eventbrite Inc. and SurveyMonkey have also filed for IPOs.

Representatives for Qualtrics didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Qualtrics makes experience-management software used to survey customers and analyze employee sentiment. Its customers include Microsoft Corp., JetBlue Airways Corp. and GE Digital. Last year, Qualtrics hired Julie Larson-Green as its chief experience officer, the same position she had held at Microsoft.

Cash Flow

Chief Executive Officer Ryan Smith said in an interview in April 2017 that Qualtrics was cash flow positive. He said then that the company expected to post revenue of about $250 million last year.

The company, with co-headquarters in Provo, Utah, and Seattle, waited about a decade before taking venture capital funding from from Accel and Sequoia.

Smith said last year that he had wanted to initially build a business that would be self-sufficient without needing outside cash to fund operations. The $180 million raised in 2017 was intended to help scale the business as he prepared it to go public, he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Barinka in San Francisco at abarinka2@bloomberg.net;Nico Grant in San Francisco at ngrant20@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, ;Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha

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