Pinterest has nabbed Google and Alibaba's former head of investor relations - the biggest sign yet that it's gearing up for a 2019 IPO
- Pinterest has hired former Google and Alibaba exec Jane Penner as its head of investor relations.
- The move is an indication of Pinterest's intention to focus on bringing top talent to interface with Wall Street ahead of its potential 2019 IPO.
- Penner led investor relations for the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba ahead of its $25 billion IPO in 2014 - the largest IPO in history.
Pinterest has hired a key exec to lead investor relations as it gears up for a potential IPO in 2019.
The company has tapped former Google and Alibaba exec Jane Penner, to spearhead investor communications and manage shareholder relationships on its behalf.
Penner led investor relations for the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba ahead of its $25 billion IPO in 2014 - the largest IPO in history. Prior to that, she was head of investor relations at Google.
Penner posted on her LinkedIn account that she had started at Pinterest in November.
The move is a the largest indication yet of Pinterest's intention to focus on bringing top talent to interface with Wall Street, an important step for the company as it looks to prove itself as a viable business and rapidly boost its revenue ahead of a mid-2019 IPO. Companies typically hire investor relations executives a few months prior to an IPO.
Pinterest is poised to double its revenue this year to nearly $1 billion, according to a CNBC report from this summer, and has a current valuation of $13 billion to $15 billion. In September, it announced that it had 250 million monthly users, up from 200 million a year before.
Penner's hire comes on the heels of Pinterest hiring Gap Inc.'s Athleta former chief marketing officer Andréa Mallard to be its first CMO last month.
The company has been making major updates to its ad products as well. It recently unveiled the biggest update to its self-serve Ads Manager tool in two years, for instance, with new features that let advertisers set up and target campaigns in three steps. It also added a carousel ad format that lets marketers feature five images within an ad, similar to formats on Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
2019 is expected to be a banner year for initial public offerings, with a roster that includes companies like Uber, Lyft, Slack and Airbnb all gearing up for potential IPOs.