Alarm.com will offer 7 million shares for $13 to $15 per share under the symbol ALRM on the Nasdaq exchange for its upcoming initial public offering. At the midpoint of that price range, the IPO would raise $98 million.
The Alarm.com IPO comes as the connected home is reaching the mainstream and more players launch platforms to control everything from lights to smart thermostats to door locks.
Alarm.com has more than 2.3 million customers, up from about 500,000 in 2010. First-quarter 2015 revenue was $46 million with a net income of $3 million, with a year-over-year revenue growth of 25 percent, according to the company's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Overall, the smart home market is expected to grow from less than $6 billion in 2013 to about $15 billion by 2018. So far, home safety has led the space, but subscription-based security may not drive the market in the long term.
Some consumers may at first be interested in security, while others may be interested in the convenience of adjusting home settings from anywhere, or getting the most out of their energy systems.
Players like Apple and Nest have platforms that connect individual devices, so Alarm.com, ADT, Comcast and other service providers will have to continue to innovate in order to keep subscription customers.
It’s not just the entry of Apple and Google's Nest that are challenging Alarm.com. IControl, a main competitor of Alarm.com that powers the likes of ADT, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Rogers and Swisscom, released a solution for independent security dealers earlier this year.
Additionally, Vivint, which was once a reseller for Alarm.com, now offers its own smart-home platform, has a robust solar business, and has started dabbling in internet offerings.
Alarm.com plans to drive future sales by recruiting additional service providers to offer its software-as-a-service platform. Alarm.com said in its S-1 filing that it plans to work with other home service providers to grow its customer base. It’s still early days, so Alarm.com is focusing on upgrading traditional security customers to its connected home platform and looking beyond North America for future opportunities.
Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Stifel, Raymond James, William Blair and Imperial Capital are underwriting the stock offering. In 2012, the Vienna, Virginia-based company raised $136 million.