Software company Aviatrix plans IPO in 2023

Founded in 2014, Aviatrix provides a secure cloud network to 500 companies, including United Airlines (ticker: UAL), Heineken and

Jefferies Financial Group

(I F). It employs 450 people.

The startup generated $42.5 million in revenue in 2021. It expects to reach $100 million in annual recurring revenue, a milestone that Mullaney expects to reach in 2022, to pursue its listing. “That’s the magic number,” he said. “We want to enter the IPO with strength.”

The company will begin the offering process in early 2023 and expects to list by the end of this year. Aviatrix is ​​discussing the deal with investment banks but has not chosen her advisers, Mullaney said.

Aviatrix raised $350 million in total funding, including a $200 million round in September that valued it at $2 billion. The company could raise another round this year, a spokesperson said.

Mullaney is the former CEO of Nicira, which

vmware

(ticker: VMW) acquired in 2012 for $1.26 billion. He is also the former vice president of marketing and interim CEO of

Palo Alto Networks

(PANW).

Mullaney was retired when, in 2019, he saw companies’ desire to move to the cloud. He became CEO of Aviatrix in March of the same year. Mullaney estimates that only 10% of enterprise workloads are currently in the cloud, and he doesn’t expect network operators such as

Cisco Systems

(CSCO) to dominate the space.

“Why not [Aviatrix]? We were born in the cloud. We want to be the Cisco of the cloud,” he said.

Cloud software providers have produced strong IPOs. In September 2020, the shares of

Snowflake

(SNOW) is up 112% from its IPO price of $120. Confluent (CFLT) has jumped 25% from its IPO price of $36 in June. More recently,

Hashicorp

(HCP) rose 6% in December after pricing its IPO at $80 per share.

Write to Luisa Beltran at luisa.beltran@dowjones.com