A year ago, restaurant software maker Toast Inc. received a $400 million investment round that valued the startup at $4.9 billion. On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported the Boston company is eyeing an initial public offering with a value of around four times that amount.
WSJ cited unnamed sources who said that Toast has enlisted Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to underwrite a possible IPO, but reported the sources also said the company may consider a sale or going public via SPAC merger. The sources said the IPO "could value the restaurant-software provider at around $20 billion."
Over the past year, the company was initially hard-hit by the restaurant shutdowns across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, laying off half its staff in early April. But as restaurants started to reopen with a heavy reliance of takeout, Toast capitalized on the changes with its contactless payment system and doubled down on efforts to help its clients survive.
Earlier this month, Toast said it had grown recurring revenue by 70% in 2020, and had a total of 40,000 restaurant locations as clients.
According to Boston Business Journal research, Toast is the largest fintech startup in the Bay State, with 700 employees in-state and a total of 1,500 as of last September.
The company has gotten a total of $902 million in funding in seven rounds over the past nine years since its founding in late 2011, according to Crunchbase. Its most recent backers are Tiger Global Management and Greenoaks Capital.
