In a new funding round that values the provider of online storage services at almost $10 billion, Dropbox Inc has secured $250 million from a fund managed by BlackRock Inc and other investors, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Since the funding round was private, the sources declined to be named, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters, "Dropbox, the 6-year-old Silicon Valley startup many expect to go public sometime this year, is taking advantage of flush investors and skyrocketing valuations for fledgling tech companies."
Amid the large rise of cloud, or Internet storage, the company has undergone tremendous growth as it continues to boom alongside mobile computing. The cloud business is also being expanded on other companies like Microsoft Corp and Amazon Inc.
Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Index Ventures are included in Dropbox's other investors, Reuters reported.
While Dropbox and Blackrock were not immediately available for comment, the Wall Street Journal originally reported the new funding round.
After a 2011 funding round, the company was last valued at about $4 billion. Since demand for online storage, the startup's valuation has also risen, Reuters reported.
"Founded in 2007 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, Dropbox rapidly accumulated users by touting its ease-of-use and polished interface that syncs files across multiple devices and operating systems. It last claimed 200 million users," according to Reuters.
Free individual consumers were offered limited amounts of storage by the company as an initial focus. The company is now expected by analysts to increasingly go after the deep-pocketed corporate market.
Introduced as one of the most comprehensive upgrades to its service for businesses, it was unveiled in November including a feature that allows users to easily maintain both personal and corporate accounts, Reuters reported.
Rival startup Box is also preparing to go public as early as 2014, Reuters reported in November. At its last funding round in December, it was valued at $2 billion.
