IPO-Focused Nutanix Takes $75 Million Loan From Its Investor Goldman Sachs

Nutanix, the top-funded startup in the hyper-convergence market, took a $75 million loan from investor Goldman Sachs in April as it continues to work on its long awaited initial public offering.

Under terms of the loan, which Nutanix disclosed last Friday in an , the San Jose, Calif.-based startup is required to pay back the loan once it stages its IPO.

Goldman Sachs stands to make a minimum of $6.5 million from the loan at a rate of 9 percent. If Nutanix decides not to do an IPO, it has three years to repay the loan at an annual interest rate of 10 percent, according to the S-1 filing.

Nutanix CFO Duston Williams told The Wall Street Journal the Goldman Sachs loan is "opportunistic insurance financing that was simple, quick and much lower cost than other insurance financing alternatives."

But the loan -- a move seen as unusual for an IPO-bound startup -- may be a sign that Nutanix is having a tough time getting investors on board with its preferred IPO price range.

Nutanix, in its original IPO filing in December, said it's looking to raise up to $200 million. But Nutanix reportedly delayed its IPO in January after its bankers suggested waiting for more favorable market conditions, and the ensuing months haven't seen any improvement on this front.

There have been two technology IPOs this year and results have been mixed. Dell's SecureWorks fell short of expectations, while shares of optical networking equipment vendor Acacia Communications have soared from their starting price of $23 per share and are now trading around $39 per share.

Nutanix helped create the market for , which combines compute, storage and networking on x86 hardware. It claims its technology obviates the need for external storage, enabling customers to cut their hardware and management spending.

Nutanix has raised more than $312 million since its founding in 2009. In the updated S-1, the startup reported revenue of $305.1 million during the nine months ended April 30, up 82 percent from the year-ago period.

Nutanix broke the $100 million quarterly sales mark for the first time in January and had $114.6 million during its April quarter, the startup said in the filing.

Yet Nutanix's losses are also accelerating as it funnels more spending into sales, marketing and research and development. After a $126.1 million net loss in fiscal 2015, Nutanix reported a net loss of $118.6 for the nine months ended April 30, including $46.8 million in its most recent quarter.

As of April 30, Nutanix said in the filing its total net loss had reached $392 million.

A significant chunk of Nutanix's R&D spending is likely related to Acropolis, Nutanix's KVM-based hypervisor, and Prism, its management software. Nutanix also develops technology that converts VMware virtual machines to its Acropolis format.

Meanwhile, Nutanix said in the filing that its increasing focus on selling its technology in software-only form will require it to defer more revenue that it's been doing so far. Nutanix also sells its software on servers from SuperMicro, Dell and Lenovo.

"We anticipate that to the extent that broad market adoption of our solutions continues to increase, there may be an increase in the delivery of our software licenses on separately procured hardware," Nutanix said in the filing.