Andreessen Horowitz-backed Samsara reveals jump in revenue ahead of IPO

Nov 19 (Reuters) - Andreessen Horowitz-backed software startup Samsara Inc on Friday revealed a surge in revenue and a smaller loss, as it disclosed its finances for the first time ahead of an initial public offering in the United States.

The San Francisco-based company sells subscriptions to its connected operations cloud, which allows organizations access to data insights related to their business.

Samsara, which counts venture capital giant General Catalyst among its prominent backers, had confidentially filed for a stock market flotation in September.

The company has not yet set terms for its IPO. Samsara, which was last valued at $5.4 billion during a 2020 funding round, is expected to seek a much higher valuation at the time of its IPO, according to a person familiar with the matter.

For the nine months ended Oct. 30, Samsara's revenue jumped nearly 74% to $302.6 million, while net loss narrowed to $102.3 million from $174 million a year ago, its filing https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1642896/000119312521334578/d261594ds1.htm#toc261594_15 showed.

Enterprise software firms such as Freshworks Inc (FRSH), Braze Inc (BRZE) and UiPath Inc (PATH) have gone public this year in the United States as demand for such firms was lifted by a wide adoption of a hybrid working environment after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Samsara had more than 13,000 core customers, as of Oct. 30, ranging from small businesses, state and local governments and global enterprises.

The company was founded by Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket, who met as graduate students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The co-founders earlier started a company called Meraki, a startup meant to deploy and manage large WiFi networks, which was acquired by Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO) for $1.2 billion in 2012.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co, J.P. Morgan and Allen & Co are the lead underwriters for Samsara's offering. Shares will be listed on the NYSE under the symbol "IOT". (Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Amy Caren Daniel)