IPO Update: Bloom Energy, Pinduoduo, And Arlo

Morning Report: Bloom went public yesterday, Pinduoduo starts trading today, and what’s up with Arlo?

Facebook aside, tech is still having a moment. And companies looking to go public are trying to get it done while they still can.

Yesterday was a good example of the situation. Bloom Energy, a long-delayed IPO (S-1) came toward the public markets with a cloud of intrigue attached. That fog included paying millions to, per Axios, “a pair of men who were accused by federal regulators of defrauding Bloom Energy investors.”

The company managed to go public by taking a valuation haircut. And, when its shares began to trade, they soared by about two thirds.

(This is the sort of IPO that makes one wonder if the markets are a touch too welcoming at the moment for new offerings. From the other end, if some companies that will eventually need to go out aren’t doing so right now they are really messing up.)

But there are other companies to observe. Pinduoduo will begin trading today (F-1). The company, a Chinese firm, priced at $19 per share, raised around $1.6 billion in the process. (It raised about as much as Bloom is worth, to help you with the comparison.)

A low-cost ecommerce provider, Pinduoduo competes with giants like Alibaba. Pinduoduo raised around $1.7 billion to build itself out. We’ll know a lot more when it begins trading, but the company is worth a few dozen billion at its IPO price. That’s impressive. And Pinduoduo continues the recent trend of Chinese IPOs in America that has seen other firms like Huya, Bilibili, and iQiyi debut domestically.

Finally, Arlo, a security camera company, is working to go public (S-1), aiming for a share price range of $18 to $20. At midpoint, the company would be worth about $1.4 billion. Netgear will retain majority ownership even after the firm debuts.

As someone who works for a corporate spinout (thanks, Verizon!), bon voyage Arlo.

Tomorrow we’ll see how Pinduoduo’s first day went and give an update on what’s going on with Tenable’s IPO and Opera’s eventual flotation.

It’s high season for tech offerings.

From The Crunchbase Daily:

Facebook plummets as user growth stalls

• Shares of Facebook were down around 19 percent, shedding close to $120 billion in market cap, after the social media giant reported quarterly earnings that showed its slowest-ever user growth rate and warned of lower revenue growth in coming quarters. The results are dragging down Snap and Twitter as well.

Pinduoduo raises $1.6B in IPO

• Chinese e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo reportedly raised $1.6 billion for its IPO after pricing shares at the top of the proposed range. The offering is said to value the operator of the fast-growing group buying platform at nearly $24 billion.

GrubHub buys Levelup for $390M

• Food delivery service Grubhub is acquiring LevelUp, a platform for managing digital restaurant orders and loyalty programs, for $390 million in cash. Boston-based LevelUp previously raised $107 million in venture funding.

Here’s when $100M rounds took over

• The rise of supergiant venture funding rounds continues. This month alone, at least 43 companies raised rounds of $100 million or more, bringing in over $12 billion. Crunchbase News takes a look at when the giant round trend took off, and where it’s headed.

Bio home runs happen stealthily

• For bio startup investors, the largest profits often come long after a public offering or acquisition. Crunchbase News takes a look at some examples, like cancer immunotherapy company Juno Therapeutics, that returned in a big way years after IPO.