Hybrid Data Storage And Backup Company Nimble Storage Files For $150M IPO

Nimble Storage, the developer of flash-optimized, hybrid storage and backup solutions for the enterprise, has filed its S-1 with the SEC today. The company aims to raise as much as $150 million in the offering, but this is just a placeholder amount and could change.

Founded by former Data Domain and NetApp executives Varun Mehta and Umesh Maheshwari, Nimble Storage offers enterprise-grade data storage and backup appliances for small and medium businesses. Nimble’s suite of four appliances combines storage, backup and disaster-recovery into a single solution, with each box offering different levels of raw storage capacity (up to 24 terabytes), flash capacity and connectivity speed.

Additionally, Nimble offers flash-accelerated primary storage performance, instant backup and restores, application-integrated data protection, and offsite disaster recovery, all from a single iSCSI system. This helps lower equipment costs and streamline storage management. The company has raised $98 million in funding from Sequoia, Accel, Artis Capital Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GGV Capital and others.

Nimble Storage saw total revenue $53.8 million in 2013, up from $14 million in 2012. The company saw net losses of $6.8 million, $16.8 million, $27.9 million and $19.8 million in the years ended January 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, and the six months ended July 31, 2013. It seems unclear from the company on when Nimble Storage will become profitable.

Nimble Storage had told us last year that an IPO is the goal for the future. At the time, Suresh Vasudevan, CEO of Nimble Storage, told us that the company’s secret to success is that its system delivered four to five times more performance and two to five times more capacity than competitors. And data recovery only takes seconds, and Nimble is relatively simple to deploy compared to incumbent products.

It should be interesting to see how Nimble Storage performs in the public markets. Fellow enterprise IPO newbie Violin Memory had a lackluster performance upon its opening in September.