General IPO
September 2, 2021
6 minutes read

Markets: IoT Startup Samsara Hops On IPO Train

The IPO train of 2021 has been boarded by many hot tech startups, some of which have debuted on the…

The IPO train of 2021 has been boarded by many hot tech startups, some of which have debuted on the public markets this year (Robinhood, Coinbase, et al) and some of which still await their debut this year.

In this fresh month of September, the first major tech startup to hop on the IPO train is a startup specialized in internet-of-things (IoT) and telematics. It’s Samsara, a company founded by two serial entrepreneurs who sold their previous tech company for over a billion dollars.

Samsara specializes in hardware and accompanying software used by fleet operators (trucks, buses, etc) to monitor and keep track of their fleet in real-time. In the logistics industry, monitoring large fleets is of utmost importance and this is a niche in which many companies have built big businesses providing the monitoring tools.

Samsara has said it’s submitted a draft confidential filing for an IPO as is usual with companies seeking to go public. The submission of this draft document precedes a review by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which then gives the go-ahead for a company to go public.

As Samsara has submitted a draft confidential document, we should be expecting a reviewed, public document quite soon if the SEC gives a go-ahead, as it plays out in most cases. The public document will give great insight into Samsara’s business, insight that we’re hungry to get our hands on and dissect here.

For a hint, Samsara likely has a very strong business, such that it’s been able to raise nearly $1bn in VC funding with a reported valuation of $5.4bn from its last financing round. By the company’s own statement, it surpassed $300mn in annual run-rate this February.

Samsara’s investors include the who’s and who’s of VC firms and asset managers; eg. Tiger Global, Andreessen Horowitz, General Atlantic, Warburg Pincus. Right from its start, the company seemingly had no issue attracting big venture funding, maybe because its two founders — Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket — sold their previous company (Meraki) to Cisco for $1.2bn.

Samsara is a six-year-old startup and going from start to a billion-dollar exit in 6 years as it’s about to do is a rare feat. At that, it seems like an interesting company to watch out for.

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