Asana Billionaire Founder Is Said to Do Debt Deal Before Listing

(Bloomberg) -- Corporate software maker Asana Inc. has raised about $200 million by issuing convertible debt ahead of its planned U.S. direct listing later this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who also co-founded Facebook Inc., and has a net worth of $13.8 billion, was the main lender involved in providing the convertible debt, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

It's not clear how much Moskovitz, who is also Asana's chief executive officer, personally contributed or whether other investors were also lenders.

The company could go public via a direct listing as soon as the second half of 2020, the people said. A final decision hasn't been made on the timing of a listing and the company's plans could still change, they said.

A representative for Asana declined to comment. A representative for Dustin Moskovitz couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Asana said in February that it had confidentially filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Direct listings, in which a company lists shares without raising new capital, were expected to increase in popularity this year as blockbuster names like Airbnb Inc. weighed the unusual route to the public markets.

Now, Asana could be one of the only candidates to follow through, as the pandemic-induced economic downturn forces companies to rethink their capital needs. Airbnb, which has been hit hard by global curbs on travel, has borrowed money and raised cash as its prospects for going public this year dim.

San Francisco-based Asana, founded in 2008 by Facebook co-founder Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein, has raised $214 million in capital since its inception, according to PitchBook Data. Its backers include fellow Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, and the venture capital firms Founders Fund, Benchmark and Andreessen Horowitz. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore also has been a backer.

The company would be just the third large technology business to do a direct listing in recent years. Spotify Technology SA and Slack Technologies Inc. went public via direct listings in 2018 and 2019, respectively.