Snap – the company formerly known as Snapchat – has reportedly filed for an IPO (Initial Public Offering) which could value the company as high as $25bn (£20bn).

The company confidentially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, taking advantage of the US Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which enables businesses with under $1bn revenue to file for an IPO while keeping their financials under wraps.

If successful, Snap could go public as soon as March, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the situation, and is expected to value the company at $20bn-25bn.

Thats slightly lower than the $25bn-plus figure cited by the Wall Street Journal when it first reported that Snap was working on an IPO, but it would still be the biggest IPO for a US tech company since Facebooks filing in 2012, which valued the company at $81.2bn.

A $1.8bn funding round in May valued the company at around $20bn.

The possibility of an IPO casts Snaps recent moves – rebranding from Snapchat, opening up its platform to direct response advertisers, introducing its Spectacle smart glasses – in a new light, suggesting it may be trying to combat investor concerns that the company is wholly reliant on ads within the messaging app as its revenue source.