The C3.ai prospectus: sixty-four customers
On 8 December 2020 C3.ai issued a final prospectus for 15,500,000 Class A shares at $42.00 — $651 million to the public, of which $610.3 million to the company. The document showed what had not been published about enterprise AI: revenue of $156.7 million for the year to 30 April 2020, a loss of $69.4 million — and thirty "Entities" and sixty-four customers as of 31 October 2020.
Why it matters
The prospectus was the first to show what an enterprise AI vendor's revenue is actually made of: not many small subscriptions but dozens of large contracts. The top three Entities produced 44 per cent of revenue in fiscal 2020 against 34 per cent the year before, so concentration was rising; Baker Hughes and Engie each accounted for more than ten per cent on their own. The customer count — sixty-four — is the document's most telling line.
The underwriting discount was $2.625 a share, so of $651,000,000 the company received $610,312,500. Alongside the offering, Koch Industries' affiliate Spring Creek Capital bought 2,380,952 shares and Microsoft 1,190,476 shares at the offering price. A Class B share carries fifty votes; after the offering Thomas Siebel controlled about 71.96 per cent of the voting power. Revenue for the year to 30 April 2020 was $156.7 million against $91.6 million the year before, a 71 per cent increase; subscription revenue within it was $135.4 million against $77.5 million, about 86 per cent of the total. Net losses were $69.4 million for fiscal 2020 and $33.3 million for fiscal 2019. The industry mix moved sharply: for the year to 30 April 2018 utilities gave 67 per cent of revenue and manufacturing 29; for the six months to 31 October 2020 oil and gas gave 30 per cent, utilities 25, manufacturing 20, aerospace and defence 16, financial services 10. What this record does not assert. The string 4.0 billion occurs zero times in the prospectus, so this record gives no valuation for the company at listing: that figure is a press number.