Netskope’s Listing, an Increasing Rarity in Cybersecurity, Sees Gains on First Day

Cloud security provider Netskope NTSK closed its first day of trading on the Nasdaq at $22.49, 18% higher than its IPO price of $19. But investors say that won’t do much to encourage more cybersecurity startups to go public instead of selling to an acquirer.

“A decade ago, $100 million in ARR, a $1 billion valuation, and strong top-line growth could get you public,” says Jai Das, president and partner of Sapphire Ventures, which backed the company during its $100 million Series E in 2017. “Today the IPO bar is much higher.”

Founded in 2012 and led by Sanjay Beri, Netskope priced its IPO at the top end of its target range of $17-$19 per share, giving it a fully diluted market cap of $7.3 billion, just below its $7.5 billion valuation when it last raised in 2021. The company is still unprofitable, reporting net losses of $169.5 million on revenue of $328.5 million for the first half of this year.

But none of that deterred investor enthusiasm, leading Netskope to raise its initial price target from $15 to $17 earlier this week. It raised $908 million in IPO proceeds and closed its first day of trading with a market cap of $8.6 billion. All shares in the offering were sold by Netskope.

Two of the company’s biggest investors, Iconiq Capital and Lightspeed, are celebrating Netskope’s debut. “This IPO is just the beginning,” says board member Arif Janmohamed, a partner at Lightspeed who led Netskope’s Series B in 2013. “After 12 years of partnership, I am excited for what’s next.” Lightspeed is Netskope’s largest shareholder, with a 16.9% stake after the IPO. Iconiq is a close second with 16.8%.

“The CEO [of Netskope] has always been focused on this milestone, and that takes a certain amount of resilience and foresight,” says Mariano Payano, partner at Iconiq, which first backed Netskope during its 2015 Series D. Payano says the firm aims to hold onto its stock and continue to grow its relationship with Netskope. At market close on Thursday, Iconiq’s stake was worth over $1.4 billion.

Netskope’s public debut as a cybersecurity company is also becoming a rarity. Fewer cybersecurity startups are going public, with 2025 set to match last year’s six-year low record of only four IPOs, according to PitchBook data. Payano says the lack of public listings is due to the growing difficulty cybersecurity companies face in meeting the needs of large customers, which are already comfortable with established vendors like Palo Alto Networks. “In cyber, M&A is more the theme than being a large standalone public company,” Payano explains. “A lot of companies, once they reach real traction, there are a lot of interested parties [for M&A].”

Netskope’s IPO is one of many since Labor Day. Klarna, Gemini, Via, and Figure all went public this month and enjoyed sizeable pops during their debuts. Online ticketing marketplace StubHub went public on Wednesday and closed 6.4% down from its opening price of $23.50.