As public market investors are showing an appetite for tech IPOs, Rubrik, a cybersecurity software startup with Microsoft as one of its investors priced its initial public offering at $32 per share. Earlier, the company had planned to sell 23 million shares for $28 to $31 each.
The company also added 500,000 shares to the IPO late Wednesday, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. As per the company, Rubrik upsized its IPO to raise $752 million after selling 23.5 million shares. This share price gives the company a fully diluted valuation of $6.6 billion, up 88% from its last primary valuation of $3.5 billion in 2019.
Rubrik’s listing comes amid the US IPO market showing early signs of recovery after stock market launches froze up during most of 2022 and 2023. We recently filed about the French company Planisware’s IPO filing.
Increase in IPOs
Many technology companies appeared on public markets in the 2010s as central banks kept interest rates low. Worries about a weakening economy started in late 2021 and led investors to become less interested in companies that are not profitable. Since then, only some young technology companies have been willing to try going public.
However, this scenario could be changing as there have been some notable successful stock market flotations in recent times. These include the social media platform Reddit and semiconductor connectivity firm Astera Labs. Also, Cato Networks and Synechron have kicked off preparations to go public.
Growth in revenue
Rubrik’s subscription annual recurring revenue, which measures customers’ full contract values, grew 47% at the end of January from a year earlier, according to its IPO filing. It disclosed a loss of $354 million on revenue of $628 million for the 12 months ended January 31 compared with a loss of $278 million on revenue of $600 million a year earlier. The company now generates 91% of its revenue from subscriptions, up from 59% two years ago.
Cloud-based cybersecurity company
Founded in 2014 by venture capitalist Bipul Sinha alongside Arvind Jain, Soham Mazumdar, and Arvind Nithrakashyap, Rubrik makes cloud-based ransomware protection and data backup software. It was founded after the team learned that 92% of IT and security leaders aren’t confident that they’d be able to maintain business continuity after an attack.
The company was founded with a vision to disrupt the backup and recovery space with a new, flexible platform built for cyber. It helps companies achieve business resilience against cyberattacks, malicious insiders, and operational disruptions. It secures your data wherever it lives across enterprise, cloud, and SaaS, making business unstoppable.
Rubrik has committed to spend $220 million over up to 10 years for the use of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. It will use Azure for its data security solutions and preferentially offer public cloud functionality for Azure to its customers, according to its filings.
Microsoft invested in the company in 2021. Rubrik CEO and Chairman, Bipul Sinha, who is also one of the co-founders, owns 7.6% of the Class B shares. Co-founder and CTO Arvind Nithrakashyap owns a 6.7% stake. Both will have 20 votes each compared with one each for the Class A shares sold in the IPO. Notably, Lightspeed Venture Partners, where Sinha was previously a startup investor, has 25% of the voting power.
Rubrik has more than 6,100 customers, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. Its clients include governments and universities, as well as an array of companies such as Home Depot Inc., PepsiCo Inc., Illumina Inc., Fiserv Inc. and the National Football League’s Denver Broncos.
