Continuing its streak of tech IPOs, Rubrik, according to a new SEC filing, will seek up to $713 million when the company goes public via the NYSE later this month under the ticker RBRK.
Along with Astera Labs and Reddit, Rubrik is one of the major technology companies that many investors had hoped would IPO this year, ending a two-year public offering drought. Additionally, Rubrik is a traditional SaaS company and will serve as a better comparison for other tech companies considering whether to go public in 2024, explained Phil Haslett, co-founder and chief strategy officer of EquityZen, a secondary marketplace for companies in the private market.
Because Rubrik has positive financial indicators – $784 million in revenue and 40% growth in positive cash flow – Haslett noted, if its IPO doesn’t go well it could create a chilling effect.
“If this IPO had happened four or five years ago, people would be talking about how Rubrik was a really great company from a revenue perspective and a success story,” added Haslett, who asked whether the standards for going public on the stock market have changed significantly. “Because if that’s the case, then we need to take a look at who is really eligible to be a public company, or who will be able to be a public company.”
According to Rubrik’s amended S-1, the company will make available 23 million shares, out of a total of 175,433,785, at a price between $28 and $31. Using an average price of $29.50, the offering would generate $632.6 million, but at the highest level it would yield $713 million and an implied valuation of more than $5.4 billion.
Such a sum would amount to at least $1.4 billion more than Rubick’s valuation after a 2021 funding round led by Microsoft. Rubrik was founded in 2011, with a focus on cloud-based data protection, and later partnered with Microsoft to create cybersecurity protection for its cloud service, Azure.
The lead underwriter of Rubrik’s IPO is Goldman Sachs, followed by Barclays, Citigroup and Wells Fargo and 11 other institutions. The listing is scheduled for April 25, just a week after Ibotta, another technology company whose IPO has attracted investor attention, makes its debut on the Nasdaq.
Given the way Rubrik shares have moved in the secondary market, Haslett added, its price range appears on par with what we saw on EquityZen in the run-up to the IPO. While he expects retail investors to pay less attention to the offering than that of a household name like Reddit, Haslett still believes interest on the institutional side could push the shares skyward once trading begins.
“If everyone hits the buy button, then things will grow at a faster rate, like Reddit, but the opposite can also be true,” he added. “Retail awareness helps for the first six months. I think it matters less over time.