A Quick Look Ahead At Tech IPOs As Q2 Races To A Close

Morning Report: Let’s take a quick peek at the tech IPO market. Here’s what’s coming next.

Please excuse the personal note, but I’m back online after a week of not being around. I even took a few days off of Twitter, meaning that I all but stopped being alive last week. It felt alright.

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Regardless, I am in catch-up mode this morning, and we need to get back on our IPO grind. So, without any more self-indulgence, here’s the latest regarding technology debuts:

Domo’s valuation cut to size. After its IPO filing flopped, Domo hit the brakes on its valuation. Per CNBC, Domo’s latest IPO filing gives the firm a midpoint valuation of just $511.6 million. That’s down from its last private valuation of $2.3 billion (post-money). The company is also now shooting for a valuation that is smaller than the pile of money that it raised ($689.7 million) as a private shop. Maybe the public markets are more efficient than we thought.
Xiaomi’s IPO shoots for big money. The famous Chinese tech company’s IPO may raise $6 billion in a Hong Kong debut, per CNN. The same report notes that Xiaomi’s revenue grew around 70 percent last year and that its “operating profit more than tripled to 12 billion yuan ($1.9 billion)” over the same time period.
Meituan’s IPO filing reveals epic losses, huge revenue growth. The other epic IPO in the offing, Meituan has a different profit profile. Indeed, the company’s $5.2 billion in 2017 revenue (+161 percent per the Wall Street Journal) came with a hugely expanded $2.9 billion loss. That’s up over three times its 2016 loss, per the company’s IPO filing. However, the company’s reported adjusted losses are falling. So, there’s that.
Elastic files privately. Finally, Elastic has privately filed to go public, according to Recode. The firm will shoot for a “valuation between about $1.5 billion and $3 billion” when it goes out, a premium on its last private valuation. More on Elastic here.
The automotive three. On the outer-edges of what counts as tech, we have these three companies. Uxin (filing) is a China-based used car auction platform that has raised nearly $1 billion. EverQuote (filing) is an online auto insurance shopping service that raised less than $40 million. And HyreCar (filing) is a platform that lets people rent their rides to people looking to provide them to others using Uber and Lyft. Per Renaissance Capital, these three are among next dozen or so companies to go public domestically.

Considering the current IPO pace, I’d expect more of the same until markets turn.

The IPO market’s first quarter was good, and the start of the second quarter also went well. Hell, Adaptive Insights even managed to dual-track successfully. The getting is good right now for tech debuts and every private investor needs liquidity. The only real question at the moment is how long the good times will last, and what will happen to companies that miss the window.

From The Crunchbase Daily:

AT&T buys AppNexus for around $1.6B

In a bid to bolster returns from advertising on its video and TV content, AT&T is buying digital ad platform AppNexus in a deal reportedly valued at around $1.6 billion. New York-based AppNexus, founded in 2007, previously raised more than $320 million in venture funding.

Meituan Dianping files for $4B IPO

Meituan Dianping, the largest service booking app in China, has filed for an IPO in Hong Kong. The company, which ranks as China’s fourth largest unicorn, plans to raise at least $4 billion in the offering.

PolicyBazaar secures over $200M

India’s PolicyBazaar, a fast-growing online insurance provider and lending marketplace, raised over $200 million in a new financing led by SoftBank.

Pet startups fetch record sums

People are spending more on their pets than ever, and venture investors have taken notice. Funding for pet-related startups has been surging for several years and it looks like 2018 will set a record, led by big rounds for dog-walking and pet-sitting services.

Immigrants lead about half of top-funded US startups

Roughly half of the most heavily funded U.S. unicorns count an immigrant as a founder or chief executive, a Crunchbase News analysis finds. The numbers hew pretty closely to overall stats for immigrant leadership at well-capitalized startups.