Daniel Loeb-backed SentinelOne valued at nearly US$12 billion in strong debut

REUTERS: Shares of SentinelOne Inc jumped more than 31per cent in their U.S. stock market debut on Wednesday, giving a market capitalization of more than US$11.7 billion to the cybersecurity firm backed by billionaire investor Daniel Loeb's Third Point hedge fund.

Its shares opened at US$46, far above their initial public offering (IPO) price of US$35 per share.

SentinelOne had fetched a valuation of roughly US$8.87 billion in its upsized IPO earlier in the day, selling 35 million shares to raise about US$1.23 billion.

It had earlier planned to sell 32 million shares priced between US$31 and US$32 per share.

The company also sold around 1.43 million shares of its Class A common stock at the IPO price in a private placement to existing shareholders.

SentinelOne protects laptops and mobile phones from security breaches by using artificial intelligence technology to identify unusual behavior in enterprise networks.

The pandemic has boosted demand for cybersecurity software as organizations worldwide move to a remote work model.

SentinelOne debuts in one of the busiest weeks of 2021 for U.S. IPOs, with at least 17 companies scheduled to enter the market, including donut chain Krispy Kreme Inc and Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were the lead underwriters for SentinelOne's offering.

(Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Krishna Chandra Eluri)