Data security software vendor Rubrik Inc. said today it has filed for an initial public offering, the latest in a growing number of technology firms to announce such plans this year, following an extended lull that dates back to 2021.

The company launched nine years ago, originally selling hardware that companies could use to back up their most important data in a modernized way, relative to traditional data storage providers. It later pivoted to the cloud, and these days the bulk of its revenue derives from data security software that detects, analyzes and remediates security risks and unauthorized user activity, it said in a filing. Its competitors include Dell Technologies Inc., IBM Corp., Veeam Inc. and Cohesity Inc.

Rubrik said in a filing it plans to float its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the “RBRK” ticker symbol. For its fiscal year ended January 2024 it recorded $627.9 million in revenue, up 5% from a year earlier, but it is not yet profitable, as its net loss widened to $354.2 million from $277.7 million the year prior.

More than three-quarters of its revenue was spent on sales and marketing in the last fiscal year. The company did not disclose the size of the offering, but when reports of an IPO first emerged last year. it was reported to be seeking to raise about $500 million to $750 million.

The announcement adds to the growing momentum around IPOs this year, which has sparked back into life after almost three years of very little activity. In March, the social media platform Reddit Inc. and database company Astera Labs Inc. both launched IPOs, meeting their fundraising goals and seeing their stocks rise on the first day of trading.

Their success has likely catalyzed the interest of other companies. Last week, the digital marketing software firm Ibotta Inc. and commodities trading platform Marex Group Plc both announced plans for imminent IPOs.

All told, 48 companies raised around $9.6 billion through IPOs on U.S.-based exchanges in the first quarter, according to data from Bloomberg, compared with just $3.8 billion by 46 companies in the same period one year ago.

Prior to this, the last two major tech IPOs in the U.S. were Instacart and Klaviyo Inc., which both went public in September 2023, receiving a strong welcome from investors on Wall Street.

The market for IPOs cooled considerably following a record-breaking year in 2021, thanks to a combination of soaring inflation and rising interest rates that pushed investors out of the technology industry and other risky businesses. The IPO lull also had the knock-on effect of less investment in private firms.

Rubrik was co-founded by its Chief Executive Officer Bipul Sinha (pictured), along with Arvind Jain, Soham Mazumdar and Arvind Nithrakashyap. Its major backers include Lightspeed Venture Partners and Microsoft Corp., which also sells its cloud services to Rubrik. In its prospectus, Rubrik revealed that it has committed to spending $220 million on Microsoft’s Azure public cloud over the next ten years.

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said it’s a good time for Rubrik to launch its IPO as the company has increasing mindshare, with enterprises becoming more nervous about cyberattacks as the value of their data increases. The funding raised through the IPO will help to fuel Rubrik’s ambitions, but it comes the additional challenge of managing investor’s expectations, the analyst warned. “Rubrik has made good progress toward improving its profitability, but future shareholders will want to deliver on that in the not-too-distant future,” he said.

Lightspeed, which formerly employed Sinha, led Rubrik’s first funding round in 2015 and is its single biggest shareholder with a 24% stake, the filing revealed. Greylock Partners holds a 12% stake, followed by Sinha, who owns 7.6% of the company, Jain with 7% and Nithrakashyap with 6.7%.

Like Reddit before it, Rubrik will create a directed share program that offers IPO shares to certain partners, friends and family members. The company had 3,100 employees on its books as of January 2024, with more than 6,100 clients on its books.

Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Citigroup and Wells Fargo will serve as lead underwriters of the sale.

Last year, Sinha appeared on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, where he discussed the company’s ambitious plans to reinvent cybersecurity with its vision of an AI-driven supercloud approach to securing data: