- Software-as-a-service model promises ‘pure’ tech benefits
- Still mostly lossmaking
- Lynch connection casts shadow
Another day, another tech company announces that it wants to IPO in London. Cybersecurity business Darktrace is reportedly targeting a valuation of $5bn (£3.8bn), seemingly undeterred by the shadow of Deliveroo’s (ROO) difficult flotation last month.
Darktrace is not the only one that has recently been tempted to come to market. Biotech business Oxford Nanopore, which specialises in gene sequencing technology, announced last week that it is also moving towards an IPO.
But the extent to which Deliveroo and Oxford Nanopore count as ‘tech’ companies is up for debate. Some posit that the former is simply a delivery business that consumers access via an app. The latter could arguably be labelled as a pharmaceutical research company that uses high-end tech – not unlike industry leader AstraZeneca (AZN), which has its own unit dedicated to biotech.
Software business Darktrace might be what investors have been holding out for. It…
