A month after declaring its intent to go public, Clearwater cybersecurity training company KnowBe4, Inc. made its stock market debut Thursday with an initial public offering of $16 per share.
Appearing on Nasdaq as KNBE, the firm will offer 9.5 million shares of stock, including 9 million from the company and 500,000 from select shareholders. At $16 per share, the offering, known as an IPO, would raise $152 million.
The offering’s underwriters will have 30 days to purchase an additional 1.425 million shares at the same price, which would bump the haul to $174.8 million — virtually matching KnowBe4’s 2020 revenues.
KnowBe4 co-president Krish Venkataraman and Lars Letonoff rung Nasdaq’s opening bell to mark the occasion Thursday morning.
Founded in 2010, the company two years ago received a valuation of $1 billion through capital funding, making it what’s known in the tech world as a “unicorn.” Documents filed earlier this month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had indicated KnowBe4 might seek even more from its initial public offering, pricing the stock slightly higher and making more shares available, giving it a valuation — once all of its shares hit the market — of $3 billion.
About 820 of KnowBe4′s approximately 1,000 global employees work from its headquarters in downtown Clearwater. But the company has offices around the world, servicing more than 37,000 clients who pay KnowBe4 to train employees how to recognize and fight cyberscams such as phishing.
“While the cybersecurity industry has been focused on the idea that better products will solve security problems, I started KnowBe4 to focus on the human,” founder and CEO Stu Sjouwerman wrote in a letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month. “Our mission became enabling employees to make smarter security decisions, everyday.”
Sjouwerman and his wife Rebecca have donated millions to charitable causes and institutions around Tampa Bay, including the Humane Society of Pinellas, the city of Dunedin’s efforts to purchase land from the estate of philanthropist Gladys Douglas; and the Church of Scientology, of which they are longtime members.
KnowBe4 saw revenues of $174.9 million in 2020, up from $120.6 million in 2019 and $71.3 million in 2018. It did not, however, turn a profit in any of those years. Last year’s net loss was $2.4 million.
Private equity firm KKR Capital Markets and Goldman Sachs, which each own more than 10 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, are among the underwriters for the IPO, along with Morgan Stanley and BofA Securities. The initial public offering window is expected to close on Monday.
This is a developing story. Check back for details.
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April 22, 2021 at 05:45PM
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