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GitLab all set to go public as revenues – and losses – rise

IPO was expected last year but then we had a pandemic

DevOps darling GitLab has finally filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) as revenues continue to grow and losses widen.

The IPO had been expected in 2020 but the company put things off due to the pandemic until late last week, when the paperwork was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company, founded in 2014, has remained tight-lipped over the sums involved, although the filed S-1 form recorded that the proposed maximum aggregate offering price is estimated at $100m.

A spokesperson told The Register that comment could not be made due to an SEC-mandated quiet period.

GitLab has long sought to be a one-stop shop for developers, competing both with GitHub (acquired by Microsoft for a cool $7.5bn in 2018) and other DevOps pipeline companies. The business has received numerous funding rounds over the years: the latest was in 2019 when it received a $268 cash injection that valued the business at $2.75bn, which more than doubled during 2020.

In the IPO document, Gitlabs said it was on course to grow revenues to $233m in its current financial year ending in 2022. This compares to the $152.2m reported in fiscal 2021 and the $81.2m in the year before that.

However, losses also widened over those years. The net loss in fiscal 2020 was $130.7m – but it was $192.2m in fiscal 2021. Net loss reached $69m for the six months ended 31 July 2021, up from $43.5m for the same time last year.

The IPO will be of Class A common stock. The stock is identical to GitLab's Class B with the exception of voting and conversion rights. Each Class B share is worth 10 votes per share compared to Class A's one vote. Class B stock can also be converted into Class A stock.

CEO Sid Sijbrandij currently owns 25,690,901 Class B shares, or 18.9 per cent of the company, according to the filing. ®

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