SurveyMonkey’s fund-raising success is showing that the business of Internet surveys is worth a lot of money.
On Thursday, the company announced a $444 million fund-raising round that it closed in December, drawing in investors like Google and the hedge fund Tiger Global Management. And it plans to raise $350 million in debt, in a round led by JPMorgan Chase.
All told, the new round of money will value the company at about $1.35 billion.
That will let SurveyMonkey make good on a promise by Dave Goldberg, the company’s chief executive, to stay private for now. Mr. Goldberg, who has increased his own ownership stake by participating in the fund-raising, said the unusual financing arangement would prevent the company from being burdened by the issues entailed in going public. And yet it still allows employees and shareholders to cash out and the company to draw in new capital.
“This transaction affords us all of the capital benefits of a public offering without the costs and distractions of an I.P.O. and the demands of operating as a public company,†Mr. Goldberg said in a statement.
It is something that he has seen firsthand. Mr. Goldberg, a veteran technology executive who sold a previous company to Yahoo, is also the husband of Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer and one of the main overseers of the Web giant’s rocky initial public offering last ye! ar.
Through the financing, SurveyMonkey has let existing shareholders cash out some of their holdings, one of the traditional motivations behind any decision to go public. Spectrum Equity Investors, co-leader of a 2009 takeover of the company, said it would continue to hold a stake.
In the nearly four years since that deal, SurveyMonkey has grown into a surprisingly durable business. It has increased its user base nearly sevenfold, to 14 million free users and 360,000 paid customers, while expanding its international base.
Beyond taking on Tiger Global and Google, who will gain a directorship and a board observer spot, respectively, SurveyMonkey has drawn in a number of other investors. They include Iconiq Capital, Social + Capital Partnership and Laurel Crown Partners.
