Bipul Sinha, co-founder and CEO of data security software company Rubrik. Sinha has previously backed cloud management firm Nutanix.
Address book
Rubrik, a nine-year-old data security software provider, filed to go public Monday, the latest venture-backed company to move toward the public market after a long hiatus dating back to late 2021.
The Silicon Valley company started by selling hardware that businesses could use to back up their data in a modernized way compared to traditional players in the industry. Rubrik then had to evolve to the cloud, where it now gets most of its revenue from software that “detects, analyzes and remediates data security risks and unauthorized user activity,” according to the IPO prospectus.
Competitors include Dell, IBMVeeam and Cohesity.
Rubrik plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “RBRK.” Revenue in the fiscal year ended in January rose about 5% to $627.9 million. The company’s net loss widened to $354.2 million from $277.7 million a year earlier. More than three-quarters of Rubrik’s revenue went to pay for sales and marketing in the last fiscal year.
After a drought that lasted more than two years, the market for initial public offerings has shown signs of recovery in recent weeks. In March, social media company Reddit and data center technology provider Astera laboratories was made public on consecutive days. Both have jumped out of the gates, raising optimism that more companies may be lining up to test the market.
Previously, the last two venture capital-backed technology IPOs had taken place in the United States Instagram AND Klaviyo in September 2023. Such deals received lukewarm responses on Wall Street and failed to open the window. After a record year of IPOs in 2021, soaring inflation and rising interest rates pushed investors out of technology and other risky assets, leading to a drying up of tech investment in public and private markets.
The cofounders of Rubrik
Source: Address book
Rubrik is led by CEO Bipul Sinha, who has invested in the cloud management software provider Nutanix before the company’s public offering in 2016. Sinha co-founded Rubrik in 2014 with Arvind Jain, Soham Mazumdar and Arvind Nithrakashyap. Jain is now co-founder and CEO of Glean, which makes software that helps corporate workers find internal information from various data sources.
Rubrik said in its prospectus that since April 2021 it has paid Glean $356,000 for the software. Lightspeed Venture Partners investor Ravi Mhatre, director of Rubrik, also sits on Glean’s board. Rubrik is supported by Microsoft and said it is committed to spending $220 million over up to 10 years on Microsoft’s Azure public cloud.
Lightspeed, Sinha’s former employer and the company that led Rubrik’s first funding round in 2015, is the company’s largest shareholder, with a 24% stake, according to the filing. Greylock Partners is second with a 12% stake, followed by Sinha, which owns 7.6%. Jain and Nithrakashyap own 7% and 6.7% respectively.
Like Reddit, Rubrik will hold a direct stock program to offer IPO shares to certain partners, friends and family.
As of January, Rubrik had 3,100 employees and 6,100 customers. The company relied on three channel partners – Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions, Exclusive Networks and Promark Technology – for 76% of its revenue in the last fiscal year.
— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.
