Utah’s Podium raises pre-IPO round, boosting its valuation to $3 billion – TechCrunch

Podium is back at the fundraising well this year, adding $201 million to its accounts at a $3 billion valuation (post-money).

The Utah-based company, which provides software services including communications and payments tools to SMBs, last raised $125 million at a roughly $1.5 billion valuation. That deal was announced in April 2020.

Podium CEO Eric Rea told Bloomberg that the company has “well over $100 million in annual recurring revenue.” TechCrunch confirmed the metric with the company, though Podium declined to be more specific regarding its current ARR.

Podium previously reached the $50 million ARR mark around the time of its $60 million Series B in November 2018. And we know that it climbed to $100 million ARR toward the end of 2019. This makes the question of how far above the $100 million ARR mark Podium is today rather important — we can’t effectively calculate the company’s growth rate without an up-to-date figure.

Recall that Podium felt cheap during its last raise, given its revenue base and $1.5 billion price tag. The company declined to share a growth target for 2021 or answer our question regarding whether it hopes to match this year’s growth rate in 2022. Given that it has an ocean of new capital, we were curious about how bold its growth plans were for the coming year. Surely money helps.

The company also declined to share IPO plan timing or notes on any notable shifts in its economics. Podium only wants to talk about its new fundraising and valuation today, apart from some very non-GAAP figures like how many “local businesses” use its service.

It’s a bummer, given that Podium, earlier in its life, was a great example of a company that was more transparent than most when it came to sharing financial information.

The lack of hard financial results makes Podium’s upcoming IPO — Bloomberg quotes an investor in the company saying that it will “definitely” go public — all the more curious. Given that we are going to see results for Podium’s current performance inside of its eventual S-1 filing, why not tell us now? (In an email, Podium said regarding its IPO timing that it is focused on “supporting as many local businesses as possible.”)