HootSuite Media, the Vancouver-based brand management social media system, is apparently on the verge of landing an investment from Fidelity Investments that could pave the way for the company to go public.
This is according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, which cites anonymous sources and also does not even attempt to put a ballpark figure on the size of the funding for Hootsuite, one of the leading Canadian tech firms. The Journal notes that Fidelity is reportedly negotiating a crossover financing, where an investor that generally buys into public companies invests ahead of a potential IPO to ensure a reasonably-sized stake.
A Hootsuite spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
As Fortune’s Term Sheet recently noted, mutual funds such as Boston-based Fidelity, along with hedge funds and banks, have been increasingly active in pre-IPO investments. Earlier this summer, Fidelity led a $1.4 billion funding round that valued car-service startup Uber at more than $18 billion and stirred up quite a bit of excitement about a potential IPO that could be in the works for that company.
Hootsuite was founded in 2008 and now has more than 500 employees and nine million users. The company raised $165 million in a Series B financing round last year that valued the company as high as $1 billion. That funding was led by Insight Venture Partners, along with Accel Partners and pre-existing investor OMERS Ventures.
