Rubrik is planning an IPO in April when a fraud investigation in the US should be finished, according to a Reuters report.
The firm began its startup life as a data protector with backup and restore software, and has since moved into cyber security and resilience. It was founded in 2014 by ex-venture capitalist and CEO Bipul Sinha, CTO Arvind ‘Nytro’ Nithrakashyap, VP engineering Arvind Jain and Soham Mazumdar. It has raised in excess of $550 million with an E-round for $260 million in 2019 followed by a Microsoft equity investment in 2021, at a valuation of around $4 billion. The business has grown quickly, having gained >5,000 customers and $600 million annual recurring revenue. It hired bankers – Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Citigroup – to work on an IPO in June last year according to an earlier Reuters report and has filed IPO papers with the SEC.
Bloomberg suggested in September last year that it could IPO by the end of 2023 and Pitchbook notes Rubrik has raised about $1 billion in funding.
Sinha has fought hard to keep Rubrik on top of emerging trends in the market. It announced a Ruby Gen AI copilot in November last year, adopted zero trust principles in its product, provided a ransomware guarantee, moved into SaaS app data protection, set up an MSP business, and acquired Laminar for its data security posture management software.
Rubrik competes with legacy data protection vendors, such as Commvault, Dell and Veritas, relative monster newcomer Veeam, Druva, fellow startup Cohesity – which has evolved into a data management company as well as espousing cyber resilience – and a mass of smaller suppliers such as HYCU and Asigra. Cohesity made an IPO filing at the end of 2021 but no IPO has yet taken place.
Reuters based its report on people familiar with the matter, and said the US Department of Justice is investigating a former sales division employee and the diversion of an undisclosed amount of funds from 110 US government contracts, worth $46 million, into a separate business vehicle. If the investigation finishes in March then Rubrik, which is co-operating with the Justice Department, could run its IPO in April.
Neither Rubrik, Microsoft nor the US Department of Justice commented on the Reuters story. When we asked Rubrik a spokesperson replied: “We decline to comment.”
