A Quick Peek At Eventbrite’s S-1

Eventbrite is going public.

Based in San Francisco, Eventbrite was founded in 2006. The company helps individuals and groups organize events and sell tickets if they want. There’s a good chance you’ve used Eventbrite.

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Eventbrite raised over $330 million during its life, including a 2017 Series G worth $134 million that valued the firm at over $1 billion, according to media reports.

Eventbrite is yet another unicorn IPO. The company is hoping to bring liquidity to its investor pool while markets are hot, and the IPO window open. For prior lead investors Sequoia, Tiger Global, and DAG Ventures, it’s likely a welcome moment.

But how is the company doing this late in its private life? Let’s take a peek at its financial performance quickly to find out.

The Numbers

Eventbrite’s S-1 details a healthy, growing company. Like most tech companies that have gone public recently, Eventbrite is unprofitable on a GAAP (inclusive of all costs) basis. However, given its revenue profile, its losses, both GAAP and adjusted, are tolerable.

The company grew from $133.5 million in 2016 to revenue of $201.6 million in 2017. That 51 percent year-over-year growth led helped Eventbrite pare its losses from  $40.4 million in 2016 to $38.6 million in 2017, counting all costs (GAAP).

Looking at the first half of 2018 (the most recent, completed financial period) in contrast the first half of 2017, Eventbrite posted the following:

• Revenue grew from $88.2 million in the first six months of 2017 to $142.1 million in the first half of 2018, up 61.2 percent. That’s represents growth acceleration, tough sticks for a company as large and putatively mature as Eventbrite.
• GAAP net loss expansion from $8.3 million in the first half of 2017 to a $15.6 million GAAP deficit in the first two quarters of 2018.
• The company did record over $4 million more in share-based compensation during the 2018 period, so on an adjusted basis the company’s losses remain modest (by contemporary standards) when compared to its revenue base, and pace of revenue expansion.
• Free cash flow grew at Eventbrite from $8.6 million in the first six months of 2017 to $13.2 million in the first half of 2018.

That’s a pretty good mix. The company even has a quarter billion in cash on hand at the end of Q1’18, along with a comparatively modest $66.4 million of debt.

In product terms, here’s what that set of financial results looks like:

Eventbrite looks healthy. It will go public if it isn’t dual-tracking, hoping for a sale instead of a public offering by dangling its S-1 into the market.

The only question now is what it’s worth.

Top Image Credit: Li-Anne Dias