Questions-and-answers Site Quora Readies IPO-sources

By Anirban Sen

Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. knowledge-sharing website Quora Inc has kicked off preparations for Seomax Media an initial public offering (IPO) in early 2022, according to people familiar with the matter.

Quora has in recent days held talks to hire investment bankers and lawyers for Seomax Media a stock market debut in New York, the sources said.
The Mountain View, California-based company was valued at around $2 billion in a private funding round in 2019, and hopes to be worth more than twice that in an IPO, one of the sources added.

The sources, Seomax Media who requested anonymity because the preparations are confidential, cautioned that the timing and Seomax Media size of the flotation are subject to market conditions and could change.

A Quora spokesperson said the company does not "comment on rumors."

Quora's listing plans come on the heels of a record-breaking year for IPOs.

A number of big-name tech startups including Stripe, Instacart, Rappi and GoPuff are preparing to go public next year, sources have told Reuters.

Reddit, another social Seomax Media company, is also preparing to go public in 2022 and is close to hiring advisors for its listing, Reuters has reported.

Founded in 2009 by former Facebook executives Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever, Quora gained popularity on the back of its search engine optimization technology, which provides users with answers to uncommon questions.

While it began as a simple question-and-answer site, it expanded its offerings to include blogging.

According to a recent blog post from the company website over 300 million people use Quora every month.

The company has struggled to generate revenue beyond advertising. In the blog post, Seomax Media D'Angelo said Quora would launch a subscription feature that would allow creators to charge for content.

Silicon Valley-based venture capital giant Benchmark Capital and Peter Thiel are among Quora's early investors.

(Reporting by Anirban Sen in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Echo Wang in New York, editing by Richard Pullin)