Technology

Could CrowdStrike Be the Next Unicorn to Come Public?

Chris Lange

Published: May 15, 2019 3:19 pm

Last Updated: January 6, 2020 4:37 am

CrowdStrike Holdings filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). No pricing details were given in the initial filing, although the offering is valued up to $100 million although this number is usually just a placeholder. The firm intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol CRWD.

The underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Jefferies, RBC Capital Markets, Stifel, HSBC, Macquarie Capital, Piper Jaffray, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, BTIG, JMP Securities, Mizuho Securities, Needham, and Oppenheimer.

CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 to reinvent security for the cloud era. When the company was started, cyberattackers had a decided, asymmetric advantage over existing security products. Now the firm has turned the tables on the adversaries by taking a fundamentally new approach that leverages the network effects of crowdsourced data applied to modern technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and graph databases.

Some of the world’s largest enterprises, government organizations, and high profile brands use CrowdStrike to protect their business. As of January 31, 2019, the firm had 2,516 subscription customers worldwide, including 44 of the Fortune 100, 37 of the top 100 global companies, and nine of the top 20 major banks.

In the filing, the firm detailed its finances as:

We have recently experienced significant growth, with total revenue increasing from $52.7 million for fiscal 2017 to $118.8 million for fiscal 2018, representing year-over-year growth of 125%, and from $118.8 million for fiscal 2018 to $249.8 million for fiscal 2019, representing year-over-year growth of 110%. Subscription revenue grew from $37.9 million for fiscal 2017 to $92.6 million for fiscal 2018, a 144% increase, and from $92.6 million for fiscal 2018 to $219.4 million for fiscal 2019, a 137% increase. Our annual recurring revenue, or ARR, has grown from $58.8 million as of January 31, 2017 to $141.3 million as of January 31, 2018, a 140% increase, and from $141.3 million as of January 31, 2018 to $312.7 million as of January 31, 2019, a 121% increase. Our net loss increased from $91.3 million for fiscal 2017 to $135.5 million for fiscal 2018, and from $135.5 million for fiscal 2018 to $140.1 million for fiscal 2019.

CrowdStrike intends to use the net proceeds from this offering primarily for general corporate purposes, including working capital, sales, and marketing activities.