By Carl O'Donnell and Joshua Franklin
(Reuters) - Fastly Inc, a U.S. startup whose software helps websites load more quickly, has hired Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) as lead underwriter on an initial public offering that could value the company at more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
Fastly is planning to launch its IPO later this year, the people said, asking not to be named because the matter is private. Fastly's plans are not final and could still change, the people cautioned.
Representatives for Fastly and Bank of America declined to comment.
Fastly would be the latest technology company to gear up for a public markets debut in what is shaping up to be a record- breaking year for IPOs. Large consumer-focused internet companies like Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc, as well as companies catering to business customers such as DataStax Inc and Zoom Video Communications Inc, are all preparing for IPOs, Reuters has reported.
Technology companies are rushing to list while public equity markets remain near historic highs and investors are still hungry to put capital into fast-growing businesses.
Founded in 2011, Fastly sells a suite of cloud services focused on the "edge" of cloud that helps speed up access to web pages. It also offers security, video and streaming services.
Like many of its peers in web infrastructure, Fastly has benefited from a broad-based transition away from hosting enterprise software on internal servers and toward the so-called cloud, which provides software and other business tools over the Internet.
Fastly, based in San Francisco, serves customers in industries ranging from e-commerce to travel, hospitality and financial services.
Its competitors include Cloudflare, which recently raised $150 million in the private markets. Reuters has previously reported Cloudflare also hired banks for an IPO later this year.
Fastly has raised a total of nearly $220 million, including a round of $40 million last year, which executives said could be its last private fundraising round ahead of an IPO. The funding round was led by Deutsche Telekom (DE:DTEGn) Capital Partners.