Pinterest said Tuesday it had named Twitter executive Todd Morgenfeld as its first CFO, reviving speculation that the image-sharing service is preparing to go public.
Morgenfeld will leave Twitter roughly a year and a half after being hired as vice president of finance. He has also worked at Hewlett-Packard and Goldman Sachs.
“We are excited that Todd is joining Pinterest as CFO,” CEO Ben Silbermann said in a statement. “Todd brings to the company a wide range of experience from HP to the military to a fast paced environment like Twitter.”
Natalie Fair, Pinterest’s current head of finance since 2012, is “looking at other opportunities within the company,” Silbermann said.
As Business Insider reports, rumors of a Pinterest IPO “have been swirling for months, and the fact that the company now has a CFO is a sign that it could happen in the near future.” The company is valued at around $11 billion, according to Pitchbook, and reportedly generated more than $100 million in revenue in 2015.
Silbermann told The Wall Street Journal that Pinterest doesn’t have any plans for an IPO and Morgenfeld’s hiring “reflects that we’re scaling the business up.”
Pinterest has been aiming to become a search engine for ideas, where brides, home decorators and amateur cooks can find and save images of things they like. “The business goal is to enable advertisers and retailers to market and offer products related to those images,” the WSJ said.
“The company has released a large number of advertising tools as it looks to offer marketers an alternative” to Facebook and Google, TechCrunch noted.
Morgenfeld joined Twitter in May 2015 from HP where he was senior vice president of treasury, financial analytics and corporate development, joining a roster of other veteran finance executives to bolster the team under CFO Anthony Noto.
“He believes in our mission and the strong business opportunity it presents,” Silbermann said. “We are committed to building our company for the long term and thrilled that Todd will be an integral part of continuing this growth.”