Roku files for $100 million IPO, but it's still losing money

Roku has filed for an initial public offering of up to $100 million, according to documents released Friday evening.

The set-top streaming device maker has been growing steadily as more and more people--especially millennials--opt to forgo their cable subscriptions in favor of popular streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Filings revealed revenue of around $399 million in 2016, up 25 percent from the year before.

The company also reported that it now has 15.1 million accounts overall--a 43 percent improvement on last year's number.

In fact, Roku is even poised to beat Apple TV, Google Chromecast, and Amazon's Fire TV, according to a report released last month. That's a pretty impressive feat for a company that was a virtual unknown 10 years ago.

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But Roku's filings on Friday show that it's also still losing a lot of money as it spends on marketing to keep up with its big-name competitors and develops new devices. The company's balance sheet shows a loss of $43.4 million in 2016, a slight uptick from $37.6 million the year before.

The documents also offer a look into what people are actually watching on their Roku boxes. Netflix was the most popular service, accounting for around a third of all video hours, and around 70 percent of all time was devoted to the top five most popular channels.

Roku was founded in 2002, and it's raised around $200 million in venture capital since then. Its backers include 21st Century Fox and Fidelity Investments.