Startup Cloudflare is considering an IPO.

Startup Cloudflare is considering an IPO.

Rumor has it that Cloudflare is planning to go through the stock market. The network service provider is expected to go public as early as the first half of 2019. It is estimated that the company is valued at $3.5 billion.

The generally reliable Reuters press agency reports this on the basis of people who are familiar with the subject matter. Discussions are currently taking place between Cloudflare and Goldman Sachs Group to shape the IPO. Those talks haven’t been finalized yet according to Reuters, so all options are still open.

Possible denial

Strikingly enough, CEO Matthew Prince van Cloudflare hints that the company will not go public. On Twitter he posted a message in which he notes that it’s strange how a startup has to beg the media for attention in the first place, and they gradually start making things up about you.

Founded in 2009, Cloudflare offers a range of different cloud services that allow websites to improve their services to customers. The company is best known for its content delivery network (CDN), but also offers DNS services, security and protection against DDoS attacks.

The company has grown rapidly in recent years. Cloudflare is possibly the largest independent provider of CDN services and has significant rivals, including Amazon Web Services, Google and Akamai Technologies. In addition, in the past it had large partnerships with, among others, Google and Microsoft.

Despite the fact that Matthew Prince seems to deny the stories, there have been rumours for some time that Cloudflare will go to the fair. In addition, the company was able to start up thanks to venture capital. Usually such investments only take place when a startup is eventually taken over, or when the stock market goes up.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.