Some two years after confidentially filing for an initial public offering, Reddit Inc. is getting set to go public in March, according to a report today from Reuters.

The report, citing unnamed sources, says Reddit plans to make its public filing in late February, followed by a roadshow in March and then listing by the end of March. Reddit is said to be seeking to sell about 10% of shares in the IPO, but a valuation is yet to be determined. The report also adds that Reddit’s IPO plans could be pushed back, as has happened previously.

Founded in 2005 by then University of Virginia students Steve Huffman (pictured, right) and Alexis Ohanian (left), Reddit pitches itself as the “front page of the internet.” The site, an amalgam of social networking and online forums, was acquired by Conde Nast in 2006 before being spun off as a standalone company in 2011 on a $200 million valuation.

Exactly what Reddit is valued at today is open to speculation. At the time the confidential IPO filing was made in 2021, Reddit’s valuation was estimated to be at least $10 billion based on a fundraising round of $700 million in August of 2021.

Forward to June last year and it was reported that Fidelity, who had led the round in 2021, had slashed the estimated worth of its investment to $16.6 million, down 41.1% from the $28.2 million it spent to acquire Reddit shares. It also noted that at the time, Reddit was still looking at going public at a valuation of about $15 billion.

What the figure will be come March is difficult to ascertain. Perhaps harder still in calculating a valuation is that there’s little to compare Reddit’s IPO to. The last social networking company to go public — and some may dispute calling Reddit that — was Pinterest Inc. in 2019, but a lot has happened in the world in the following four years.

Coming into its IPO, Reddit does follow in the footsteps of others, though, in going public after having never been profitable.

According to Reuters, the company is expected to have generated more than $800 million in advertising revenue in 2023, up 20% year-over-year but not enough to break even. Reddit has previously claimed that its losses are the result of investing in the platform and its users engaging less with advertising on the site than on other social media sites.

Photo: Reddit