US-based big data analyst Palantir filed yesterday to go public through a direct listing that would allow insurer Sompo Holdings, IT services firm Fujitsu and data analytics technology provider Relx to exit.
The company, which has raised about $2.7in funding, intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. It has set a $100m placeholder amount but the direct listing model means it will not issue any new shares and does not need to appoint underwriters.
Palantir has built software that analyses large quantities of data to extract relevant information, sending members of its team to work for clients onsite. Its Gotham platform is used for security analytics while its Foundry platform is designed to work with large corporations.
The IPO filing revealed the company served 125 customers in the first half of this year, a period when it increased revenue by almost 50% year on year to $481m. Its net loss fell from $280m to about $165m in the same period but its combined net loss for 2018 and 2019 was $1.16bn.
Venture capital firm 8VC invested $123m in Palantir between April and July this year according to the filing while investment manager Disruptive Technology Advisers supplied $127m.
Sompo Holdings had agreed the previous month to invest $500m in the company, just after a $50m commitment by Fujitsu.
The filing reveals the company redeemed $82m of convertible note financing from Founders Fund, Mithril Capital and Goldcrest Investments – all vehicles headed by Palantir founder and chairman Peter Thiel – between July and September 2019.
Undisclosed investors provided $880m in funding for Palantir at a $20.3bn valuation in 2015, for a round closed at $900m the following year.
Relx led the company’s $35m series B round in 2009 through REV, the subsidiary then known as Reed Elsevier Ventures.
Early Palantir investors include Tiger Global Management, Khazanah Nasional, 137 Ventures, SP Investments Management, Artis Ventures, Glynn Capital Management, GSV Ventures, Kortschak Investments, Sozo Ventures, Ulu Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the US intelligence community.
Palantir’s shareholders will divest class A shares in the listing. Its shareholding consists of about 530 million class A shares, about 1.2 billion class B shares held by investors including Founders Fund and Palantir’s executives, and 1 million class F shares owned entirely by its co-founders.
Sompo Holdings holds 20.3% of the company’s class A shares while Disruptive Technology Advisers owns 9.5%, financial services firm UBS 5.7% and 8VC 5.3%. Founders Fund holds no class A shares but 12.9% of the class B’s.
