Sequoia Buys Shares in Elusive Startup Zapier at Multibillion-Dollar Valuation
Sequoia wanted a piece of the startup badly enough that it was willing to acquire a stake outside a typical venture financing.
Zapier isn’t a household name outside Silicon Valley, but the world’s top venture capitalists have long been trying to own a piece of the booming enterprise software firm. The problem for investors was that Zapier, whose software automates personal computing tasks, didn’t need their money. It raised just $1.3 million in seed equity funding early last decade and has operated profitably for much of the last six years.
Recently, however, storied venture firm Sequoia Capital found a way into Zapier, by buying shares from Zapier founders in the secondary market, where investors purchase private stock from existing shareholders, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The sale was done at a valuation that appears to have surpassed $4 billion, which would be at least 40 times its annualized revenue, according to new information released by one of its earlier investors.
