Nutanix files to go public, looks to raise $200M

The company saw $241 million in revenue in 2015, but had a net loss of $126 million

Last week CB Insights published its 2016 tech IPO pipeline, where it listed the companies it saw as being the most likely to go public in 2016. Already one of their predictions has come true. 

Web-scale converged infrastructure company Nutanix filed its S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, the first step to becoming a public company.

The company says it is looking to raise $200 million in its initial public offering. It will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, under the symbol NTNX.

Founded in September 2009, the San Jose-based Nutanix is a virtualized datacenter platform that provides datacenter infrastructure solutions for implementing enterprise-class.

"We provide a leading next-generation enterprise cloud platform that converges traditional silos of server, virtualization and storage into one integrated solution and can also connect to public cloud services," the company said on the filing.

"Our software-driven platform delivers the agility, scalability and pay-as-you-grow economics of the public cloud, while addressing enterprise requirements of application mobility, security, data integrity and control."

As of the end of October, Nutanix had roughly 2,100 end-customers as of October 31, 2015, including 226 Global 2000 enterprises. 

The company makes the majority of its funding by selling its product, representing $200 million of the $241 million in revenue the company saw for the fiscal year that ended on July 31. The other $41 million in revenue came from support and other services.

While revenue is rising, growing from $113 million in fiscal year 2014, so are net losses, which were $126 million in 2015, up from $84 million in 2014. The majority of that loss came from costs of the product, which includes payments to third-party contract manufacturers,  as well as personnel costs, such as salaries, benefits, bonuses and stock-based compensation. That was $80.9 million of its 2015 revenue.

Nutanix had raised $317.6 million in funding, including a $140 million Series E funding round in August of 2014. Investors include Blumberg Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Battery Ventures.

Other potential 2016 IPOs

CB Insights identified 531 venture capital and private equity-backed technology companies that could go public in 2016, down from the 588 tech companies identified for last year's report.

The four other companies most likely to take the plunge are:

• Virtualization data management company Actifio. The company raised $207.5 million including a $100 million round in March of 2013. Investors include North Bridge, Greylock IL, Advanced Technology Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Technology Crossover Ventures.

• Open source integration platform MuleSoft, which has raised $258.5 million, including a $128 million round in May. Investors include Salesforce Ventures, ServiceNow, Cisco Investments, Adage Capital Management,Brookside Capital, Sands Capital Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners,Meritech Capital Partners, Bay Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners,Morgenthaler and Sapphire Ventures.

• Indentity management service Okta, which has raised $229.3 million, including a $75 million round in September. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Floodgate, SV  Angel, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

• Subscription billing platform Zuora, which was raised $242.5 million, including a $115 million funding round from Wellington Management Company, Blackrock, Premji Invest, Passport Capital, BenchmarkCapital, Greylock Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Index Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Vulcan Capital, Next World Capital, Dave Duffield and Marc Benioff. 

By any measure, 2015 was a terrible year for the IPO market. Absolutely awful. There were 169 IPOs, which raised $30 billion in 2015. Not only was that a 39 percent drop in volume, and a 65 percent drop in money raised, but numbers were the lowest since 2009, which was right in the heart of the recession.

Investors have to be hoping that Nutanix is just the beginning of a more robust year.

(Image source: zdnet.com)