Box Just Did Something Rare For A Company About To Go Public

It is rare for a company that has already filed for an IPO to seek new financing.

Box Inc. did just that Monday, raising $150 million from private equity firm, TPG Growth and from Coatue Management, L.L.C.

According to The Wall Street Journal, data from Dow Jones VentureSource indicated that in all of 2012 and 2013, only 14 out of 124 venture-backed IPOs raised new private investment funding while registered to go public.

The new financing raised Box’s value to $2.4 billion from its previous valuation of $2 billion. It also provided the company with some additional time before it would actually have to go public. Sources told The Wall Street Journal the new timeline called for an IPO sometime between Labor Day and the end of the year.

Box filed for an IPO in March, but delayed its plans due to low demand for U.S. technology stocks.

Related Link: Sources: Box Now Planning July Or August IPO

In a statement TPG’s Bryan Taylor said, "TPG has a long history in investing in cutting-edge technology companies and Box is no exception. Box has established a strong leadership position in the transition to the cloud, and we are confident that the company can continue to scale."

CNET reported that following the new investment from TPG and Coatue Box amended its original filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to show Q1 financials.

The new filing indicated that although the company spent less on sales and marketing than in the same quarter last year, losses came in at $38 million for Q1 2014 versus $34 million for the same quarter in 2013.

On the other hand, revenue increased 94 percent to $45 million compared with just $23 million for the same period a year ago.

The Wall Street Journal noted that venture-capital firms, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, General Atlantic, and Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as software marketer, Salesforce.com CRM, have funneled more than $500 million in investment funds into Box.

Box said it had more than 27 million individual users, including 99 percent of Fortune 500 companies. The company competes with other cloud startups such as DropBox, along with industry giants such as Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon.

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco  had no position in any mentioned securities.