Dropbox
Dropbox

Online-storage provider Dropbox has been valued at close to $10bn (£6.1bn, €7.4bn) in a funding deal.

The Wall Street Journal, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that the company secured funding of about $250m in a deal valuing Dropbox at around $10bn.

Dropbox is now one of the most highly valued companies backed by venture capitalists, according to the newspaper.

The latest round of investment in the company was led by a fund owned by asset manager BlackRock Inc, WSJ added.

Following the deal, Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of Dropbox, has become a billionaire, according to Forbes, which puts Houston's stake in the San Francisco-based company at more than 10%.

In 2011, Dropbox raised $250m from investors including Goldman Sachs GS and venture-capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and Accel Partners. The company was valued at $4bn at the time.

Expansion Plans

The latest funding will accelerate Houston's plans to strengthen the company's corporate services. At present, more than four million businesses are using Dropbox's security and other premium features.

Earlier, the company announced Dropbox for Business, which provides storage for work groups. Like the regular version of Dropbox, the business version provides a way to securely store digital files in a central location and work on or share the items from any connected device.

The company had expected sales of more than $200m in 2013, up from $116m in 2012, the newspaper reported. That compares to its $46m revenues in 2011.

However, the company has no immediate IPO plans, and is focusing on recruiting and "building a great foundation", according to Houston.

Related

Dropbox's rival Box Inc secured $100m in funding last month, meaning a $2bn valuation.

WSJ added that the elite club of companies with multibillion-dollar valuations is growing. New companies in the list include Palantir Technologies that was valued at $9bn, Spotify with a value of $4bn, and Uber Technologies that was valued at $3.76bn.