Roku Files For IPO, Looking To Raise $100M

Roku, a significant player in the streaming media market, has revealed that it has filed papers with the SEC for an IPO, and is looking to raise as much as $100 million. While the company originally began with a simple set-top box that focused solely on Netflix, it now produces a number of streaming media devices and smart TVs, each with support for a wide range of services.

The company's filing reveals several details about its business, including that it had 15.1 million active accounts at the end of June, and that the first half of 2017 saw over 6.7 billion hours of content streamed on the Roku platform. It also admits that while one-third of all the hours streamed during 2016 are from Netflix, it doesn't make much money from the service, and while YouTube is its most-viewed channel with ads, it makes no money from it.

In addition, Roku discloses that it has operated at a loss for a while now, with a $244 million deficit as of June, and that it may be some time before it reaches profitability. However, the company says that its solution is to gain more users and grow its advertising revenue.

Roku notes that it's looking to grow with the cord-cutting trend as a whole, as it doesn't act as a streaming service itself and therefore doesn't compete with others. "TV streaming's disruptive content distribution model is shifting billions of dollars of economic value. Roku is capitalizing on this large economic opportunity," the company's filing reads.

SOURCE Roku