Rubrik shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday at $38 per share. The cybersecurity company priced its shares at $32 apiece late Wednesday, just a hair above its initial target range of $29 to $31 after raising $752 million. This share price gives Rubrik a fully diluted valuation of $6.6 billion, up 88% from its last primary valuation of $3.5 billion in 2019.
Rubrik sells cloud-based security software to businesses and has 1,700 customers with contracts worth more than $100,000 and 100 customers who pay the company more than $1 million a year. The Silicon Valley startup was founded in 2014 and has raised more than $550 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase data.
The venture capital firms most hoping Rubrik’s stock continues to rise are Lightspeed and Greylock. Lightspeed has backed the company through five separate funding rounds, including leading the company’s Series A round in 2015. Lightspeed and its affiliates own 23.9% of Rubrik’s shares prior to the IPO, according to the company S-1 file. Corporate conviction in the company could come from the fact that Rubrik co-founder and CEO Bipul Sinha was previously a partner at Lightspeed from 2010 to 2014. Sinha owns 7.6% of the shares.
Greylock owns 12.2% of Rubrik shares. The venture capital firm led the startup’s $41 million Series B funding round in 2016 and also participated in the Series C and D funding rounds. Greylock partner Asheem Chandna serves on the board of administration of the company since 2015.
Besides Sinha, Rubrik’s other two co-founders hold notable stakes. Arvind Jain, co-founder and now CEO of AI workplace assistant startup Glean, has a 7% stake. Arvind Nithrakashyap, co-founder and current CTO of Rubrik, owns 6.7%.
Other renowned venture capital firms have also backed the company. Khosla Ventures led Rubrik’s Series C round in 2016; IVP led the company’s Series D round in 2017; and Bain Capital Ventures led the company’s Series E round in 2019. It’s unclear what percentage of shares these companies still hold, but it’s less than 5%, as none of these investors have been named in the company’s S-1. NBA All-Star Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures was also an investor.
Rubrik’s IPO results are facing more scrutiny than some other recent IPOs because Rubrik’s debut looks more like a 2021 IPO and less like other IPOs in stock market of 2024. Ibotta debuted as a profitable company. Astera Labs and Reddit had both recently moved to GAAP net income. Rubrik, however, is an unprofitable company that sees its losses continue to increase rather than decrease.
The company reported that its revenue grew just under 5% between its fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024, from $599.8 million to $627.9 million. At the same time, the company’s losses continued to grow: its net losses increased from 46% in its 2023 fiscal year to 56% in its 2024 fiscal year.
The company’s metrics have one bright spot, however: subscription revenue. In the company’s most recent fiscal quarter, subscriptions accounted for 91% of revenue, up from 73% a year earlier. Subscription revenue tends to be stable, and its growth could explain why some investors are more confident about Rubrik’s future prospects, despite its current losses and lack of profitability.
Rubrik is the fourth venture-backed company to go public in recent months, as investors appear eager to reopen the IPO market. The three companies that preceded Rubrik – Ibotta, Reddit and Astera Labs – broke out on the first day of trading and have all settled in since then, some in better positions than others. But none have been a disaster or a negative omen for other potential IPOs this year.
While four positive IPOs could spur more companies off the bench, current predictions that interest rate cuts may not come as early in 2024 as many have predicted could dampen the recent dynamics of the IPO market.
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