Snowflake looks to raise about $2.38 billion in U.S. IPO

Snowflake Inc, backed by venture capital firm Sequoia, said on Tuesday it expects to raise about $2.38 billion in its initial public offering in the United States, about two weeks after it made its financial documents public.

The cloud-based data warehouse firm set a price target of between $75 and $85 per share for its sale of 28 million shares.

Berkshire Hathway Inc and Salesforce Ventures LLC, each, agreed to buy $250 million of its stocks in a private placement, Snowflake said. (https://bit.ly/2F8R3mw)

Snowflake confidentially filed to go public earlier this year, shortly after its last funding in February that valued it at over $12 billion. Sequoia owned an 8.4% stake in the company prior to the offering.

The debut will mark yet another marquee public listing for a Silicon Valley startup, even as all eyes are on Airbnb, Palantir and DoorDash, all expected to go public before the end of the year.

The Silicon Valley unicorns are looking to ride the stunning recovery in U.S. capital markets from the COVID-19 pandemic that earlier this year forced several companies to postpone their debut.

Snowflake posted a 173.7% jump in revenue to $264.7 million for the fiscal year ended January compared with a year earlier, but net loss nearly doubled to $348.54 million.

Snowflake plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SNOW.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Allen & Co and Citigroup are among the underwriters for the offering.

(Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)