FireEye IPO filing reveals big losses and hiring blitz
Anti-malware ace now has close to 1,000 staff but losses are exceeding sales
An initial public offering (IPO) filing from FireEye has revealed the break-neck pace at which the anti-malware start-up is expanding its global operations.
The US-based start-up, which claims its technology can snuff out threats that evade traditional signature-based security techniques, is aiming to raise $175m (£114m) by going public.
According to its S-1 form, which it filed with the SEC on Friday, FireEye's headcount stood at 932 on 30 June 2013, up from just 175 in December 2011.
During the same period, its number of customers more than doubled from 425 to 1,100.
Perhaps as a consequence of its frenetic expansion push, net losses for the six months to 30 June hit $67.2m, more than its revenue, which doubled year on year to $61.7m.
The firm ploughed $66.5m into sales and marketing during the same period – almost as much as the $67.6m it spent on such activities during the whole of 2012.
FireEye claims its virtual machine-based security platform represents a "paradigm shift" from how IT security has been conducted in the past. It believes its technology will "supplement and eventually replace" web, messaging, IPS and end-point security techniques that use traditional signature-based techniques. Citing IDC numbers, it said this means it is aiming at an annual addressable market of $11.6bn.
At the time it filed for its IPO last April – incidentally for the same value of $175m – rival Palo Alto had only about 700 staff and was making much smaller losses.
FireEye, which is headed up by former McAfee chief executive Dave DeWalt, has turned heads in the UK for the pace at which it is hiring staff, with some sources suggesting it has already amassed more than 30 staff here just two years after touching down.
In an interview with CRN last week, EMEA managing director Paul Davis was coy over the pace of FireEye's expansion on this side of the pond.
"Everyone knows we are recruiting and [the numbers] will come out in time. But we want to concentrate on the business in hand," he said.