HubSpot aims to raise US$100m through IPO

26 Aug 2014

Digital marketing software company HubSpot, which hopes to employ 150 people at its Dublin headquarters in the coming years, plans to raise US$100m through a much-anticipated IPO.

In a filing with the SEC, HubSpot indicated it plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HUBs.

CEO Brian Halligan and CTO Dharmesh Shah founded the American company in 2006.

In February of this year, HubSpot announced 17 new jobs at its international headquarters in Dublin and said its ambition is to grow the enterprise to 150 people in the coming years. Worldwide, the company employs more than 700 people.

Describing itself as an “emerging growth company,” HubSpot’s IPO will be underwritten by Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and UBS Investment Bank.

The company, which sells its platform on a subscription basis, said its inbound marketing and sales software as a service (SaaS) platform has attracted 11,500 customers, including 1,900 agency partners.

More than 5,500 people attended HubSpot’s Inbound conference and more than 10,000 professionals were trained via the HubSpot academy.

The company said its total revenue increased from US$28.6m in 2011 to US$51.6m in 2012 and to US$77.6m in 2013. Mid-way through 2014 the company has already couped revenues of US$51.3m.

Net losses were US$34.3m in 2013 and US$17.7m at the end of June this year.

“We believe there is a large market opportunity created by the fundamental transformation in marketing and sales,” HubSpot said in its prospectus.

“Businesses of nearly all sizes and in nearly all industries can benefit from delivering an inbound experience to attract, engage and delight their customers. We focus on selling our platform to mid-market businesses, which we define as businesses that have between 10 and 2,000 employees.”

HubSpot logo via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com