As MuleSoft closes up 45%+ on its first day of trading, valued at about $3B+, CEO Greg Schott talks about IPO timing, potential acquisitions, more
MuleSoft, a San Francisco-based SaaS integration company, last night priced the year's first big enterprise software IPO, raising $221 million.
Context & Ripple Effects
MuleSoft's debut caps a fast arc: the company filed for its IPO in February off a $1.5B private valuation, then set a $12-$14 price range that implied roughly $1.8B fully diluted — and instead priced the year's first big enterprise software offering at $221M raised.
The first-day close above $3B more than doubles that midpoint math and hands early backers like Salesforce Ventures, which led the 2015 round at $1.5B, a marked-up public position — while CEO Greg Schott uses the moment to float acquisitions as a use of the new currency.
First-order effects
- MuleSoft now has a public stock trading well above its last private mark, giving it both a $221M cash raise and an acquisition currency that Schott is explicitly signaling he intends to use.
- Salesforce Ventures and other pre-IPO holders see their $1.5B-round stakes reprice immediately against a $3B+ market close.
Second-order effects
- A 45%+ first-day pop on the year's first major enterprise software IPO is a signal other SaaS startups and their bankers will read as a reopened window, pressuring late-stage companies weighing staying private versus filing.
- Rival integration and middleware vendors face a better-funded MuleSoft with stated M&A ambitions, tightening competition for the connective tissue between enterprise SaaS apps.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the integration layer becomes a consolidation battleground where well-capitalized platforms absorb point solutions — the classic specialist-absorption dynamic playing out in enterprise software.
- A successful debut reprices the whole cohort of venture-backed SaaS firms waiting on the sidelines, shifting exit expectations from private rounds toward public markets.
The trend: Enterprise software is testing whether 2017's public markets will reward the SaaS integration layer, with MuleSoft's pop as the year's opening data point.