Launched 19 years ago, SurveyMonkey has raised $1.1 billion in funding and now the company is preparing to go public under the NASDAQ exchange with the symbol SVMK. According to SurveyMonkey’s Form S-1, the company is planning to raise $100 million through the IPO. However, SurveyMonkey has not disclosed how many shares it plans to sell as of yet nor does it say the price of the shares. The stock sale will be led by JPMorgan.
SurveyMonkey’s flagship product is a platform that enables users to create professional surveys. This enables its customers to receive real-time feedback for improving their products and services. And its customers can understand how to retain talent and build a healthier company culture.
“We believe SurveyMonkey is a category-defining global brand. Our products are inherently viral; by sending surveys through our survey platform, our users build awareness on our behalf. According to a recent poll we conducted on an unbranded survey platform, our brand awareness in our largest target markets is approximately 79%. We believe our significant brand awareness and viral product usage allows us to attract approximately 80% of our individual paying users organically, resulting in a highly-efficient customer acquisition model,” said SurveyMonkey in its S-1. The company also highlighted partnerships with major news organizations such as NBC News, CNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Fortune.
Of the $1.1 billion in funding that SurveyMonkey raised, over $300 million was in the form of debt. SurveyMonkey’s latest round of funding took was $250 million in December 2014 and investors in that round included Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, Social Capital, Morgan Stanley, and ICONIQ Capital. That round of funding valued the company at about $2 billion.
SurveyMonkey saw notable revenue growth year-over-year. SurveyMonkey hit $218.8 million in revenue last year compared to $207.3 million the year before. And in the first half of this year, SurveyMonkey’s revenue was $121.2 million (up 13.8% during the same period the year before). However, SurveyMonkey is not yet profitable as it saw a $24 million net loss in 2017 compared to $76.4 million the year before.
SurveyMonkey’s board of directors include Ryan Finley (SurveyMonkey founder), Zander Lurie (SurveyMonkey CEO), Tim May (SurveyMonkey CFO and COO), Robin Ducot (SurveyMonkey CTO), John Schoenstein (SurveyMonkey Chief Sales Officer), Tom Hale (SurveyMonkey President), Jon Cohen (SurveyMonkey Chief Research Officer), David Ebersman (Lyra Health co-founder and CEO), Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook), Sue Decker (Raft CEO and founder), Brad Smith (Chairman and CEO of Intuit), and Serena Williams (professional tennis player with 23 career Grand Slam singles titles).
Sandberg’s late husband Dave Goldberg was the former CEO of SurveyMonkey. And Sandberg will be donating all the shares beneficially owned by her to the Sheryl Sandberg and Dave Goldberg Family Foundation as part of their philanthropic commitment to the Giving Pledge.
“Dave died tragically and suddenly on May 1, 2015. Anyone who knew Dave will understand how devastating it was for the company – for all of Silicon Valley, actually – to lose such a visionary,” wrote Lurie in the filing. “Organizations that suffer that sort of shock can either unravel or rally. We rallied. I believe the company is more empathetic, more resilient and more determined because of Dave’s life and death.”
