OneStream CFO Bill Koefoed remains focused on the long game as the cloud-based financial software provider wraps up its IPO.

“We're going to keep our heads down and continue to execute” against new products OneStream announced several months ago, including machine learning technologies and sales or performance management, he said in an interview Wednesday. 

OneStream began trading on the NASDAQ Wednesday with an initial valuation of $4.6 billion, according to Reuters. The company raised approximately $490 million, which is above the original target of $460 million, after offering 24,500,000 at $20.00 per share according to a press release, in what is set to be a banner week for U.S. IPOs — which are expected to to generate as much as $5.5 billion from debuts, Bloomberg reported.

 The IPO will help to drive awareness surrounding OneStream’s offerings for finance chiefs, Koefoed said.

Providing a modern business platform

The Birmingham, Michigan-based company’s IPO follows after it announced “nearly a dozen” new product innovations related to core finance and operation functions, including financial close, planning and forecasting solutions, according to a May press release. Its public offering is expected to close Thursday, with Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and private equity firm KKR — which took a majority stake in the business in 2019 as its first external investor — acting as lead book running managers for the offering.

Also in May, OneStream — which provides solutions for financial planning and analysis, capital and people planning, compliance solutions and other offerings for the office of the CFO — revealed an AI library aimed at helping CFOs to boost their adoption of the technology, including a suite of AI-enabled solutions, according to a press release.

One of the products “generating a significant amount of traction” is the company’s sensible machine learning offering, which focuses particularly on improving demand forecasting for CFOs, Koefoed said. While it’s still early days, “we're seeing that every CFO needs better demand forecasting, and so we're seeing a lot of interest in that,” Koefoed said of the product.

Prior to joining OneStream in 2019 as its finance chief, Koefoed served as CFO for Bain Capital-backed online certified diamond retailer Blue Nile, and has also held CFO and executive roles for The Boston Consulting Group, and Microsoft, according to his LinkedIn profile.

As CFO, Koefoed received total compensation of about $4.04 million in 2023, including a $422,917 base salary and non-equity incentive plan compensation of $243,653, according to a prospectus filed by OneStream with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 15 ahead of its IPO.

The “biggest area that we've been investing in…is really around AI and ML and research development,” Koefoed said of OneStream, which comes as the company looks to execute on its goal of becoming the operating system for the modern finance function “by unifying core financial functions and empowering the CFO to become a critical driver of business strategy and execution,” according to the prospectus.

Best IPO practices

OneStream will look toward future growth following a 19% jump in customers from 2022 to 2023, with software revenue hitting $343.4 million, according to its prospectus. OneStream also reported a narrower net loss of $28.9 million in 2023, compared to a net loss of $65.5 million reported the previous year.

For its most recent quarter ended Mar. 31, the software provider reported annual recurring revenue of $480 million as of Mar. 31, as well as a 34% jump in ARR year-over-year.

The company feels well-prepared to make the jump to a public entity, Koefoed said, which follows years of preparation and adjusting to ensure the finance team was set up for the shift.

“We've really been spending the time thinking about our metrics compared to other companies’ metrics, just getting prepared to be a public company,” he said. “And I think that's partially what gives us the confidence today to be a public company.”

As well as hiring executives in key areas — such as Anne Leschin, an alum of ServiceTitan and DocuSign, who started as VP of strategic finance and IR at OneStream in June, according to her LinkedIn profile — the company also conducted mock earnings calls., something that Koefoed described as “certainly a best practice” if not a typical one. The strategy echoes that of restaurant chain CAVA, which went public in 2023 with a valuation of $4.7 billion, CFO Dive previously reported.

While the finance team will “certainly be spending time with outside investors,” for his part, Koefoed will continue to focus on evolving the company’s products, its pricing and how to continue to grow the business, he said.

“Great companies thrive because they continue to invest in innovation,” he said. “And we're going to continue to invest in innovation, continue to grow our platform, and continue to try to be the solution that CFOs see, not just for their current needs, but for their future needs.”