The much-anticipated IPO of Rubrik, which was 20 times oversubscribed, generated some $736 million as shares exceeded the initial pricing range sought by the Microsoft-backed tech firm.
The cloud and data startup offered 23 million shares, all from the company, at $32 each, above the range of $28 to $31 cited in the company’s S-1 filing. This puts Rubrik’s valuation at $5.61 billion. As recently as 2021, it was valued more than $4 billion after an investment from Microsoft.
Fifteen banks worked on the offering, with Goldman Sachs the lead underwriter. Shares are set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday under the ticker RBRK.
Rubrik is the latest tech company to go public in 2024. Last week, shares of Ibotta, the digital marketing company backed by Walmart, rose 17% in their first day of trading, while social media platform Reddit gained 48% in March and chip firm Astera Labs rocketed 72% last month.
Founded in 2013, Rubrik provides a platform that helps businesses manage and protect their data. More than 6,100 clients use Rubrik’s software, including Goldman Sachs, the Denver Broncos, and the law firm Baker & McKenzie. The startup raised $554.3 million in funding, according to Crunchbase, with investors including Lightspeed Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Greylock Partners. Lightspeed will retain 25.4% of voting stock while Greylock will have 13%, according to the company’s regulatory filing.
Rubrik reported $97.5 million in net losses for the three months ended Jan. 31, compared with about $86 million in losses for the same time period in 2023, while revenue soared 61% to $158.7 million.
Ibotta was profitable in 2023, reporting $38 million in net income. Reddit and Astera Labs were unprofitable for nearly all of 2023, with both companies reporting positive net income in their fourth quarters.
For Matt Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital, Rubrik’s IPO will be a big test of whether there’s investor appetite for fast-growing but unprofitable companies.
“There are dozens of unprofitable tech unicorns waiting to go public. So if this does well, I’d expect a number of those to move forward,” Kennedy told Coins2Day. “There’s some excitement over finally getting that high-growth tech company. But at the same time, investors will be quick to pull their money out if they don’t see a good result.”