Ad tech company AppNexus has reportedly filed paperwork beginning the process for an initial public offering that could see the firm seeking a valuation of up to $2bn (£1.59bn).

According to The Wall Street Journal, the IPO is expected to happen during Q2 2017, with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase serving as lead underwriters.

AppNexus was most recently valued at around $1.6bn, and in September the New York-based startup completed a $31m funding round driven largely by a $10m investment from News Corp.

Since then, the company has undergone some minor restructuring that saw 13 per cent of its staff laid off, and two new divisions created, one to provide advertisers with ad buying technology, and one services publishers looking to sell ad space. This restructure was seen as a strong indicator that the company was preparing to float on the stock exchange.

More recently, the company made headlines following its decision to ban controversial right-wing publisher Breitbart News from using its ad-serving technology, citing violations of its 'hate speech' rules.

The ad tech firm has been aggressively positioning itself as an alternative to Google, investing heavily in header bidding technology which aims to break up the traditional 'waterfall' of ad selling and disrupt Google's hold on the process.

At the time of publication, AppNexus has not publicly commented on the reports.