Markross121_ No Comments

Cloudflare’s IPO filing at a glance: rising revenue, falling losses and risky customers

A day after WeWork’s blockbuster IPO filing appeared, another big VC-backed name has advanced to the next step in 2019’s IPO frenzy.

Web services unicorn Cloudflare has publicly released its S-1, planning to trade on the NYSE under the symbol NET. The company did not disclose the number of shares that would be offered and set a placeholder target of raising $100 million. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are the lead underwriters.

Founded in 2009, the San Francisco-based cybersecurity and internet services provider grew relatively quickly in its early days, followed by something of a plateau in the past few years. Cloudflare was valued at $6.3 million after a $2.25 million Series A in 2009, and its valuation began steadily rising from there, jumping to $80 million in 2011, $1 billion in 2012 and $1.8 billion in 2015 following a $182 million Series D. The company stayed off the fundraising radar for four years, before raising $150 million this past March amid rumors of the impending public debut.

Key figures

A key challenge for Cloudflare is that it operates in a relatively saturated field, in contrast to some of the other VC-backed unicorns in relatively new industries. Cloudflare counts Cisco, Zscaler, Akamai, Amazon and Microsoft as just some of its competitors, resulting in comparatively more modest YoY growth rates than those in WeWork’s prospectus, for example.

 

Read More – www.pitchbook.com