Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) is a cloud-based data storage, computing and analytics company with no official headquarters. The company embraced a non-centralized business model in 2021 but the history is much deeper than that.
The company was founded in 2012 as Snowflake Computing, Inc by a trio of data storage experts who kept it in stealth mode for its 1st 2 years. Snowflake Computing Inc. brought its offerings to the public in 2014 revealing that it already had 80 clients using its services. Services include cloud-based software and hardware applications that are highly scalable and include 3rd-party support to aid businesses with today’s rapidly changing technological landscape.
The company saw rapid growth over the next several years and reached unicorn status in 2017/2018. The company sold itself on the public market in 2020 and caused quite a stir when it did. The company priced its original offering at $75 to $85 per share and wound up listing them at $125 for the IPO. The IPO was oversubscribed and drove the price up to $240 before even the first trade was made. That gave the company a valuation of nearly $3.4 billion making it one of the largest cloud IPOs in history. Snowflake Computing, Inc shortened its name to Snowflake, Inc upon completion of the IPO.
Today, Snowflake Inc operates a cloud-based data platform in the United States and does business internationally. The company's primary product is Data Cloud, a cloud-based suite of tools that allows clients to consolidate data into a single location and facilitates deeper analytical insight and information sharing.
The company believes that data should not be siloed or only available for limited use. On Snowflakes platform, data is governed, which allows users to access 2nd and 3rd party data to gain the deepest insights possible. The platform also operates on the idea of a Data Lake that can be accessed anywhere from anywhere. Among the many benefits of using Snowflake’s one-cloud platform are access, global connectivity, cross-cloud operability and creating new revenue streams for businesses. The platform can be fully automated as well so clients are able “to harness data, not manage it”.
The company initially used Amazon’s AWS cloud services but switched to Microsoft’s Azure and then Google’s cloud which it is currently operating on. This progression has helped it gain its own deep insights and facilitates its ability to provide the best-in-class cross-cloud services on the market.
Security is central to the platform’s success. Not only is data stored in a centralized location and governed in a tiered manner (which keeps each business's IP and most trusted secrets safe) but the platform’s utility allows for state-of-the-art threat detection and some of the quickest response times in the industry.
Snowflake brought in $1.22 billion in revenue for 2022 and employs about 4,000 across its operating footprint. The company counts more than 1300 client partners and has more than 250 PBs of data under storage. The company offers solutions in 6 categories: Advertising, Media & Entertainment; Financial; Retail & CPG; Healthcare & Lifesciences and Marketing Analytics.
