Business Public Markets

A Look At Palantir’s Long-Awaited S-1

Palantir Technologies, the big data company co-founded by Peter Thiel, has finally publicly filed its S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

We got a peek at Palantir’s financials after TechCrunch got ahold of some leaked screenshots last week. But now, with the whole document available to everyone, we have a fuller picture of the company which filed confidentially to go public last month.

Starting with the financials revealed last week, the company reported $742.6 million in revenue for 2019, up 25 percent from the $595.4 million revenue it generated in 2018, per the filing. Its net losses didn’t change much during that time, going from $580 million in 2018 to $579.6 million in 2019. So while Palantir’s revenue has grown, its losses have remained more or less the same.

More recently, the company reported $481.2 million in revenue for the first half of 2020, around 49 percent higher than the first half of last year. Its losses during the first half of this year came out to $164.7 million, down 41 percent from the first half of last year.

Palantir is known for being extremely private and has attracted controversy over the years, most notably for contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the first half of 2020, the company’s platforms were used by 125 customers, according to the S-1 filing.

The company actually cites its customer count as a risk factor in the S-1.

“Historically, existing customers have expanded their relationships with us, which has resulted in a limited number of customers accounting for a substantial portion of our revenue,” the company wrote. “If existing customers do not make subsequent purchases from us or renew their contracts with us, or if our relationships with our largest customers are impaired or terminated, our revenue could decline, and our results of operations would be adversely impacted.”

Palantir goes on to note that its top three customers combined accounted for 33 percent of its revenue in 2018 and 28 percent of its revenue in 2019. Its top three customers by revenue in 2019 had been with the company on average for eight years, according to the filing.

“Certain of our customers, including customers that represent a significant portion of our business, have in the past reduced their spend with us or terminated their agreements with us, which has reduced our anticipated future payments or revenue from these customers, and which has required us to refund some previously paid amounts to these customers,” the company wrote. “It is not possible for us to predict the future level of demand from our larger customers for our platforms and applications.”

Palantir last raised $550 million in a funding round led by Sompo Holdings in June. The company, which recently moved its headquarters from the Bay Area to Denver, has at least $2.6 billion in total funding, per Crunchbase. Some of Palantir’s largest stockholders include Founders Fund, Sompo Holdings, Disruptive Technology Solutions, UBS AG and 8VC.

The company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PLTR. 

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.

Copy link