It’s difficult to call Egnyte a startup after 14 years. It’s more of a shrewd seasoned private company with consistent growth, one that took 12 years to reach $100 million in ARR but only two more years to reach $150 million. It may reach $200 million this year, and Egnyte CEO and co-founder Vineet Jain believes the company’s next step might be an IPO. He’s ambiguous about the scheduling of such an event, as are most CEOs, but he believes it will happen at some time this year.
Jain told TechCrunch that he has had attention in the last year or two from organizations interested in taking him public via a SPAC or private equity firms hungry for a SaaS company with 35 percent -40 percent growth, but it is not the path he wants to follow. When the time is perfect, he desperately wants to become a typical public business. “When you go public, it’s really the macroeconomic factors that have an impact.” It doesn’t matter what your financials are if the market is frozen, but I am 100% dedicated to going public,” he stated.
He wants to repay those who have stuck by him, including early investors and staff who have patiently watched the company expand slowly but gradually without taking shortcuts. He also has a personal reason for wanting to accomplish it. He sees developing a successful firm that enters the public markets as a big milestone for him personally as an immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1993. “That immigrant chip is still on my shoulder.” I’d like to take a business public.
“I want to put a stamp on the middle of my forehead to signify that this guy could develop a fantastic public company from the ground up and take it public,” he added. Jain has always taken pride in developing a financially sound company that has experienced consistent growth while avoiding the capital burn that some companies have experienced in order to achieve rapid expansion. And, he claims, investors are becoming more aligned with that strategy, particularly as the market becomes more volatile. “[Recently], I’ve noticed a significant shift in which our fiscal discipline is receiving more attention than ever before.”
This includes a 25 percent to 35 percent growth rate in the last five years, as well as gross margins in the 70s and rising retention metrics, as well as the fact that they’ve been cash flow positive three of the last five years. “I’m forming a financially sound growing company.” I’m not a frequent flier who might start with 90 percent or 70 percent [growth] and then decline. My ARR is increasing, moving from 18 percent to 26 percent to 30 percent, and it’s only going to become faster. He said, “That story is garnering a lot of attention.”
