Life sciences SaaS vendor Veeva Systems, with significant Philly area presence, files for IPO of up to $150 million

Tom Paine

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Veeva Systems, the Pleasanton, CA-based life sciences software firm with a significant presence in the Philadelphia area, has filed for an IPO to raise up to $150 million.

Veeva, which competes with Oracle and others in providing SaaS solutions to pharmaceutical and life sciences sales & marketing functions, has its US sales, marketing and customer service functions based out of Radnor. In June, it acquired Fort Washington-based healthcare provider data firm AdvantageMS. Veeva co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Matt Wallach, a Wallingford native, is based here. (Update: Wallach was named President of
Veeva Systems last month, reporting to CEO Peter Gassner.)

Veeva reported revenue of $129.5 million for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2012, more than double the previous year. Income was $18.8 million.

Looking at the recent Bessemer Ventures Partners data on the valuations of publicly traded SaaS companies relative to their revenues, one can speculate at what Veeva's market capitalization could be, particularly considering that Veeva has been profitable while many listed in the BVP data are still not.

Veeva, founded in 2007, has reached this point with only $4 million in venture funding from Emergence Capital Partners and $3 million in angel funding. Emergence Capital has a stake of more than 30%.

I first wrote about Veeva's possible IPO plans in March.

Veeva would list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "VEEV".

SaaS Life Sciences vendor Veeva Systems, with significant Radnor (& now Ft Washington) presence, annnounces IPO plans

Tom Paine

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Veeva Systems announced this morning it was planning to conduct an initial public offering of its common stock after the SEC completes the review process initiated by Veeva Systems' confidential submission on June 26, 2013 of its draft registration statement, subject to market and other conditions.

Headquartered in Pleasonton, CA, Veeva serves the life sciences vertical with an increasingly broad array of SaaS-based solutions. Veeva has much of its US sales, marketing and client services based in Radnor, with at least 50 to 60 employees located in the area, the company told me in March.

Veeva's CRM offering for Life Sciences sales reps was built on Salesforce's Force.com platform. It built its own content management platform, Veeva Vault, which was introduced last year. Just this week, at the DIA annual meeting, it introduced its cloud-based Veeva Vault Investigator Portal, appearing to move more deeply into the clinical trial document management space, and acquired AdvantageMS, a Fort Washington-based provider of data on healthcare providers.

I first wrote about Veeva's potential IPO plans after Bloomberg reported on them in March, speaking at the time with Veeva co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Matt Wallach, a Wallingford native who is based here. Veeva is unusually profitable for an early-stage SaaS company, with Bloomberg citing sources as saying that Veeva posted a profit of $30 million on revenue of $120 million in 2012. Oracle is probably Veeva's biggest overall competitor, and Oracles' partnerships with Salesforce, NetSuite and Microsoft announced this week were seen by many analysts as a recognition of its weaknesses in SaaS and cloud computing.

Veeva Systems was founded in 2007 and reached this point with only $7 million in outside capital. Peter Gassner is its President & CEO.


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