Evernote, which makes a popular app for taking notes and storing data on tablets, phones and personal computers, is considering filing for an initial public offering by the end of next year, its chief executive told Reuters on Friday. Evernote has more than 14 million users, with about 500,000 users who pay $5 a month for premium access, the company said.
People use Evernote to record notes, organise data, store photos and search for documents. The app is available on Android and Apple devices. An IPO is inevitable, but the company is not in a rush to test the public markets, said Chief Executive Phil Libin.
"If everything goes relatively smoothly over the next year and a half, I can see us filing our paperwork by the end of next year. If everything doesn't go smoothly, that's fine with me and (we) could delay it, but there's no rush," he said.
He said if market conditions stay as they are, the company would go public in 2013. "Ideal conditions are to start (the) filing process at the end of next year in order to IPO by 2013," Libin said. Libin, who founded the Mountainview, California-based company in 2008, declined to comment on how much money it would want to raise in an IPO. He said the company has not yet hired bankers or lawyers for the IPO. Sequoia Capital invested $50 million in the company in July. He said the company's annualised revenue was $16 million over the past 12 months and growing quickly.