3
Rubrik
| Power Score: 64.13 | Momentum Score: 52.94 (6) | HQ: Palo Alto, CA | CEO: Bipul Sinha |
Economics
Valuation: $3.7 billion (+168% vs. last round, 2017)
Amt. Raised: $926.5 million
Politics
Lobbying Spend:
No
Industry Orgs: No
People
Headcount: 2,123 (+31% YoY)
Engineering Headcount: 555 (+17% YoY)
Big Tech Experience: 9%
Open Roles: 167
Innovation
R&D Spending: n/a
Patents Applied For: 51
Patents Owned: 79
Acquisitions: Igneous (December 2020)
Leadership
Exec Team Exits : No
Diversity Data: No
ESG/CSR Data : No
On Power
Founded in 2014, Rubrik is a relative newcomer to data warehousing, but it's a company that came out of the gate as one of the hottest in the sector. While it took both Snowflake and Databricks more than five years to hit unicorn status, Rubrik eclipsed a $1 billion valuation in just over two years. But while Rubrik has continued to grow, its post-unicorn growth rate has fallen short of that of the two companies ranked ahead of it in the Power Index. In those last years though, the company has put a premium on expanding its business into government branches and services, which has, traditionally, been a slower process than expanding in the B2B market. In December 2020, the company announced that it had closed an eight-figure government deal, which, it says, "builds on the momentum Rubrik has experienced in the highly classified segment of the U.S. Government over the last three years."
On Disruption
In addition to its public-sector penetration, Rubrik has positioned itself as a leader in data security alongside its broader data storage business. The company has leaned into the rise of ransomware attacks in recent years — especially those against public-sector entities — most recently launching a new cyber resilience protocol on its existing product and launching a disaster recovery SaaS business to prevent the worst consequences of cyber attacks. Like the DevSecOps portmanteau itself, Rubrik has planted security firmly in the middle of its product offerings as a point of differentiation between it and its largest competitors. And Big Tech has taken notice in a way that will fast-track new customers to Rubrik's business. In August, Microsoft reportedly invested a " low tens of millions" of dollars in Rubrik, specifically to harness the company's technology related to ransomware recovery and protection. Though still tightly bound to its data warehousing business, Rubrik's security foray broadens its offerings and shifts the company away from a pure-play database company.
Tea Leaves
Rubrik's head of engineering, Vinod Marur, and its sales head, Brett Shirk, left the company in February 2021, which CEO Bipul Sinha attributed to the company entering its "next phase of growth." The company has hinted at wanting to go public for some years now. In 2017, Sinha said he wanted the company to IPO by 2019. In 2019, as the company completed its series E funding round, Sinha noted that, while he wanted to be a public company, he wasn't focusing on an IPO. Nevertheless, the hot IPO market has spurred rumors that the company could be in an eminent wave of cloud IPOs.
They Said It
"Our ambition is to become the data management platform for governments and for the largest enterprises in the world, and this can only be done [through] the channel… As the world is getting more complex with cloud and other new technologies, people need a trusted adviser who … understands the holistic needs of the customer." —CEO Bipul Sinha in a January 2019 interview