Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp arrives at the “Tech for Good” Summit in Paris, France on May 15, 2019.
Charles Platiau | Reuters
Data analysis software company Palantir Technologies said Monday night that it has filed a request for public actions confidentially.
Founded in 2004, Palantir has been among the top rated company-backed companies, raising around $ 2.6 billion and reaching a valuation of $ 20 billion five years ago. The Palo Alto, California-based company told CNBC in April that it expected to exceed $ 1 billion in revenue this year.
Large companies and government agencies use Palantir software, which typically incorporates large amounts of data, and Palantir employs “future-deployed software engineers” who work closely with clients. As recently as last week, Palantir noted in a presentation that he was raising more capital, as part of a round that could reach close to $ 1 billion.
Palantir has more than 2,500 employees listed on LinkedIn. Thiel, one of the first sponsors of Facebook, has encouraged the company to remain private as long as possible, although co-founder Joe Lonsdale has pushed for an IPO. A year ago, Lonsdale predicted that an IPO was “a few years” away, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Last month, Palantir added Alexandra Wolfe Schiff, who was a reporter for the Journal, to her board of directors, becoming the first female director. California requires that public companies have at least one woman on its board of directors.
Notification of a confidential filing does not mean that a public list is necessarily imminent. Food delivery company Postmates said it had confidentially applied for an IPO in February 2019, but it was never made public. On Monday, Uber said it had agreed to buy Postmates for $ 2.65 billion in stock.
– CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.
CLOCK: Full CNBC interview with Palantir CEO Alex Karp in Davos
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