Square’s public filing also includes a note from Jack Dorsey, who has recently committed to being the full-time CEO of both Square and Twitter. The number of shares and the price range have yet to be determined.
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The company has raised between $500 million and $600 million in the private market, according to data from PrivCo.
The 6-year-old maker of credit-card reading devices was expected to make such a move for months.
During the first half of 2015, Square posted revenue of $560.6 million, up 51 percent compared to the same time frame the previous year.
Square, founded in 2009, plans to list on the NYSE under the ticker SQ.
Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are acting as lead joint book-running managers for the proposed offering, according the annoucement.
But the most recent “unicorn”, a privately held company worth more than $1 billion, to go public faced a tepid reaction.
The first beneficiary of the foundation, Dorsey said via Twitter, would be Ferguson, a city that he visited during the unrest that followed the August 2014 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by police Officer Darren Wilson.
Nevertheless, Square stressed the increasing switch toward digital payments among consumers and merchants alike as part of its growth strategy.
While the filing shows Square’s revenue is growing at an impressive rate, its continued losses will limit the amount of money the company will be able to fetch in its IPO, said Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. The takeaway: While Square will be a much smaller business from a revenue standpoint after the Starbucks deal lapses, it will be a faster-growing one with a much better shot at profitability.
It’s been a busy month for Jack Dorsey. However, revenue jumped 54 percent past year to $850.2 million, with transaction revenue making up most of the total. Losses were up, too, at $154 million in 2014 from $104 million in 2013.
Media reports said Square took advantage of a USA law to file for its IPO on a confidential basis earlier this year.
Reducing conflicts of interests and minimizing head butting, Dorsey has stepped down from his role as Chairman (though he remains on the board) and former Twitter CEO Costolo has resigned from Twitter’s board.
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“This may at times adversely affect his ability to devote time, attention, and effort to Square”, the filing said of Dorsey.
