Peloton's public S-1 shows revenue of $915M in fiscal 2019, up 110% YoY, and an annualized subscriber growth of ~144% over the past 3 years, to 511K this June
Today, Peloton, the maker of pricey in-home bicycles and treadmills paired with on-demand fitness classes, filed its S-1 …
Crunchbase NewsMary Ann Azevedo
Context & Ripple Effects
Peloton's public S-1 filing converts a year of private-market momentum into disclosed numbers: the company that raised $550M led by TCV in August 2018 at a reported $4.15B valuation confirmed its confidential IPO filing in June 2019, and the S-1 now shows why investors were interested — $915M in fiscal 2019 revenue, up 110% YoY, with subscribers compounding at roughly 144% annualized to 511K by June.
The filing matters because it forces Peloton's hardware-plus-subscription model into public scrutiny for the first time: the $4B-era valuation from the last private round now has to be defended against real unit economics, churn, and the cost of subsidizing $2,000-plus bikes, setting up the pricing decision that followed.
First-order effects
Peloton's financials are now public record, so prospective IPO buyers can see the growth engine directly — revenue doubling YoY on a subscriber base growing ~144% annualized — rather than relying on press reports around the TCV round.
The S-1 puts pressure on the reported ~$4.15B private valuation: public-market investors will re-price the business against disclosed subscriber counts and revenue, not venture-round narratives.
Second-order effects
Public disclosure of Peloton's connected-fitness economics gives rivals and would-be entrants a benchmark for what scale in subscription fitness hardware looks like, shaping how competitors pitch their own hardware-plus-content bundles to investors.
With the numbers out, the IPO became a referendum on whether recurring subscription revenue justifies a multiple over the last private mark — which is exactly how the market resolved it when Peloton later priced at $29/share, raising $1.16B at roughly double its prior round's valuation.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, consumer hardware companies with attached subscriptions will increasingly be valued on subscriber growth and lifetime value rather than device sales — making S-1 disclosures like this one the template other connected-device startups get judged against.
A successful listing at a premium to the private round would encourage more late-stage hardware-subscription companies to go public while growth metrics are still accelerating, tightening the window between mega-round and IPO.
The trend: Connected-fitness hardware is being repriced from a gadget business into a subscription business, with Peloton's S-1 as the first full public look at what that model earns at scale.
Peloton's subscription biz has ~43% gross margins, lower than the ~75% SaaS companies typically see. Obv not an enterprise play, but cost of running subscription biz is not as cheap (mostly content costs). https://www.sec.gov/... https://twitter.com/...
In Peloton's earliest days, the founding team's HQ had heavy black curtains to create a “makeshift cycling studio, equipped with a modest six bikes and a used camcorder,” according to the company. https://news.crunchbase.com/ ...
Now up on @CrunchbaseNews: Peloton (Finally) Drops Its S-1, Revealing Sharply Rising Revenue And Net Losses A true team reporting effort by @bayareawriter, @nmasc_ , @SophiaKunthara, @alex, and me. https://news.crunchbase.com/ ...
You knew I was going to tweet my favorite single chart in the Peloton or any other S-1 didn't you? Of course, you still need to do the detective work on your own to increase the probability that you understand unit economics and value creation. Page 78. https://www.sec.gov/... ht…
Incredible metrics in Peloton's S-1 filing • $915M in revenue (20% recurring) growing 110% per year • ~40% gross margins on the hardware which basically offsets acquisition cost (net CAC was $5 last year) • 95% 12 mo subscriber retention and subscriber LTV of $3500 🤯
Little known fact: Peloton, like Datadog and WeWork, is based in a scrappy lil town called New York. Could it be a tech hub in the future?? The jury is still out
a ctrl+f for “addictive” in peloton's s1 yields 6 results, which i believe is 6 too many for a technology company that is also a media company and an interactive software company and a product design company and a social connection company and an apparel c https://www.sec.gov/...…
Peloton is the single biggest innovation in fitness since Crossfit in early '00s, sparking off the recent fitness tech boom (Tonal, Mirror etc). (No, Soulcycle is not fundamentally different fm Crossfit - similar group classes) Good thread on Peloton's S-1 by @tanayj https://twit…
Peloton S-1 is out. My first thought was meh. The majority of the revenue is one-time 50% GM HW revenue and the subscription revenue is quite small. This is partially correct, which is why the multiple on it will be lower than a pure SaaS company. BUT,... https://www.sec.gov/...
Peloton: Revenue 2x 2018, up past $900m. $181m of revenue is for subs. rest is hardware. Over 600k subs (1/6 are just with the app) Lossses 4x 2018, to $195m As expected, churn is almost nonexistent.
When your professor asks you a question and you've been tuning out the lecture (From today's Peloton S-1: https://www.sec.gov/...) https://twitter.com/...