Cloud-based Data Warehouse Firm Raises $479 Million; Snowflake

California-based Snowflake, the cloud-based data warehouse company has raised a huge round worth of $479 million on a valuation of $12.4 billion. This new round of funding has been led by Dragoneer Investment Group with the participation of a new investor Salesforce Ventures.
Snowflake’s existing investors have also contributed in the new funding round. The list includes Madrona Venture Group, ICONIQ Capital, Sequoia, Altimeter Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Redpoint Ventures.
According to Snowflake, it has raised a total of more than $1.4 billion till date including the newly raised capital and the new valuation is triple of the previous $3.9 billion which had been noted in October 2018.
Frank Slootman, the CEO of Snowflake said in an announcement that the next finance event of the company will be likely an IPO. About the IPO part of the company, the CEO only replied that it will be the next logical step, and refused to disclose any other detail.
Frank stated, “I think the earliest that we could actually pull that trigger is probably early- to mid-summer timeframe. But whether we do that or not is a totally different question because we’re not in a hurry, and we’re not getting pressure from investors.” By excepting that once the company go public, employees would be allowed to get their equity out of the company, he further included  “The only reason that there’s always a sense of pressure around this is because it’s important for employees, and I’m not minimizing that at all. That’s a legitimate thing. So, you know, it’s certainly a possibility in 2020 but it’s also a possibility the year thereafter. I don’t see it happening any later than that.”
According to Frank, the company has added 500 new customers in the last quarter alone, including which the company is currently serving 3,400 active users who have actively used the platform in last month.