Pat Gelsinger-backed Gloo seeking to raise up to $109M in IPO – News

Gloo Holdings Inc., a provider of software for faith-based organizations that is backed by Pat Gelsinger, plans to raise up to $109.2 million in an initial public offering.

Reuters reported the company’s plans on Thursday. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Gloo stated that it hopes to raise the funds by selling 9.1 million shares for $10 to $12 apiece. The stock sale would value the company at $873.4 million at the top end of the range.

Boulder, Colorado-based Gloo develops software for religious organizations such as churches. It launched in 2013 and received an investment from Gelsinger, the former chief executive of Intel Corp., shortly thereafter. This past March, Gelsinger became the company’s executive chair and head of technology.

Gloo provides an application suite called Gloo Workspace that churches use to send congregants event notifications and other messages via SMS. A paid tier, Gloo Workspace+, adds more features including the ability to send videos and run polls.

The product suite’s core communications features are available alongside a set of analytics tools. An engagement monitoring dashboard enables churches to measure how congregants interact with SMS messages and identify areas for improvement. Another built-in analytics tool visualizes attendance trends.

Gloo’s second product suite, Gloo AI, provides artificial intelligence tools for churches. It includes an AI chatbot that can answer questions about a religious organization’s documents and other internal data. Gloo offers the user-facing version of the chatbot alongside application programming interfaces that make it possible to integrate the AI into third-party services. 

The company sells not only its own software but also third-party technology products. Gloo mainly distributes those offerings through an e-commerce marketplace called Outreach that it bought last year. According to the company’s IPO filing, it generates revenue from the marketplace by charging third-party suppliers for promoting their products.

Suppliers can further extend their market reach using an advertising service called Gloo Media Network. It places ads on more than a half-dozen religious content websites operated by Gloo.

The company sells its software and advertising offerings alongside a professional services package called Gloo360. It enables customers to have Gloo manage and secure their information technology infrastructure for an annual fee. Furthermore, Goo has acquired several professional services firms that specialize in tasks such as providing financial guidance. 

The company generated $28.47 million in revenue during the six months ended June 31, an increase of about $17 million from the same time a year earlier. Most of that growth was driven by Gloo’s platform solutions segment, which includes its professional services business. The segment’s revenue increased nearly tenfold on a year-over-year basis. 

Gloo is not yet profitable. It reported a $69.8 million net loss attributable to shareholders in the first half of the year.

Gloo plans to continue making acquisitions after going public to support its revenue growth. The company will list its shares on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “GLOO.”

Photo: Gloo