The Thoma Bravo-owned identity security vendor is looking to make its return as a public company, according to a regulatory filing.
SailPoint is pursuing its return as a public company after several years of major growth under private equity ownership, according to a regulatory filing.
The Thoma Bravo-owned identity security vendor disclosed its intentions to pursue an initial public offering in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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SailPoint did not disclose its targets for share price range or number of shares for the offering. The company is seeking to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “SAIL.”
What follows are five things to know on SailPoint’s IPO plans.
IPO 2.0
Founded in 2005, SailPoint previously went public in 2017 and operated as a publicly traded company until August 2022, when it was acquired by Thoma Bravo for $6.9 billion.
In an interview at the time the deal was announced in April 2022, SailPoint CEO Mark McClain (pictured) said the vendor was looking to accelerate its growth within the enterprise identity security space with investment from Thoma Bravo, which has been a major backer and acquirer of top cybersecurity industry players in recent years.
In a letter included with the SEC filing, McClain said that interest in identity security has “amplified considerably” since the company’s earlier IPO, with the notion of taking an “identity centric” approach to security now often viewed as critical.
“As a result of this new reality, we believe demand for identity security solutions has continued to build in the years since our first IPO,” he wrote in the letter.
SaaS Transformation
A lot has changed for SailPoint itself, as well, according to McClain.
Notably, SailPoint was in “the early stages of our Saas transformation during our first foray into the public markets,” he wrote. “This Saas transformation accelerated during the pandemic as organizations needed to digitize their operations quickly.”
As of today, “our SaaS transformation is substantially complete, with the majority of our customer base using our Saas solution, the bulk of all new customers choosing our Saas solution, and many of our self-hosted customers in the process of or considering migrating to our SaaS solution,” McClain wrote.
Speaking with CRN in 2023, McClain fired back at a competitor’s claim that SailPoint was a “legacy” identity security provider. SailPoint offers a “true SaaS product [built] from the ground up,” he told CRN at the time. “We’re a 17-year-old company, but we’re not legacy SaaS. We’re the most cutting-edge SaaS product in our category.”
Growth Momentum
In the company’s S-1 filing of its IPO intentions with the SEC, SailPoint disclosed generating total revenue of $621.5 million for the nine-month period ended Oct. 31, 2024. That represented revenue growth of 25 percent from the same period a year earlier, when the company generated $496.9 million.
SailPoint also reported that its loss from operations narrowed to $158.52 million during the nine months ended at the end of October, from $267.5 million the year before.
Focus On Partnerships
SailPoint has increasingly focused on driving growth with the help of channel partners in recent years, including with the revamp of the vendor’s channel program in 2023.
In its S-1 filing, the company pointed to key partnerships with system integrators, VARs and MSSPs, calling the channel a “core part of our strategy.” And SailPoint indicated it has plans for “further leveraging our use of channel partners, including MSPs” looking ahead, according to the filing.
As of the 12 months ended January 31, 2024, SailPoint disclosed that approximately 80 percent of its new customer transactions “involved our partner network.”
IPO Market Signals
Along with signaling the vibrancy of the identity security market, the SailPoint filing also appears to be a sign of increased optimism around the tech IPO market in 2025.
In the cybersecurity segment in particular, just one vendor, Rubrik, has completed an IPO since 2021. The data security provider went public in April 2024.
Recently, however, several security vendors have announced moves geared toward preparing for an IPO. Netskope last fall disclosed intentions of completing an IPO during the second half of this year, while Wiz this month hired well-known executive Fazal Merchant as its president and CFO to help prepare for going public.
