IPOs can be boom or bust, In 2017 we had $APRN (bust) and $ROKU (boom). There are some huge brands expected to be going public in 2018. The most anticipated brands include Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest, Lyft, Spotify and WeWork.
IPOs can be boom or bust, In 2017 we had $APRN (bust) and $ROKU (boom). There are some huge brands expected to be going public in 2018. The most anticipated brands include Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest, Lyft, Spotify and WeWork.
Airbnb
Current Valuation:$31 billion
Probability of going public: High
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told Fortune magazine his company will “be ready” for an IPO in 2018. The online marketplace for short-term home and apartment rentals now boasts more than 3 million worldwide listings across 97 percent of the world’s countries. After starting in 2008 it turned profitable in late 2016 and expects to remain so throughout 2017.
Airbnb is valued at $31 billion after raising more than $4 billion from investors, including a Series F financing round of $447.8 million in March 2017.
Dropbox
Curent Valuation: $10 billion
Probability of going public: High
Dropbox, the cloud-based file-sharing service has been cash flow positive since 2016. The company has a massive base of 500 million registered users worldwide. Significantly that includes 200,000 business customers, rising from 50,000 in 2014. Dropbox’s revenue is now over $1 billion annually and has a total funding of $607 million. Earlier in the year a coalition of six banks, led by JP Morgan Chase, granted a $600 million credit line to Dropbox. While competition remains a problem for Dropbox, the company is becoming more than a ‘pure cloud’ play with its succesful move into productivity and collaboration software.
Current Valuation: $12.3 billion
Probability of going public: Moderate
Image sharing site Pinterest began in 2010 and now boasts more than 30 billion unique pinned images. The rate of increase has been rapid, images doubling every nine months. Meaning there will be 60 miilion images in mid 2018.
Revenue growth has been just as impressive. Revenue rose to $300 million in 2016, nearly triple 2015 revenue. It is expected revenue could rise as high as $600 million in 2017. Investors have funded the company to the tune of more than $1.3 billion. In early 2017, a company spokesperson said Pinterest had no “current plans for an IPO.” The hiring of its first CFO along side the presence of Facebook’s former monetization director tells us otherwise.
Lyft
Current Valuation: $11 billion
Probabilty of going public: Moderate
Lyft has quietly seen a surge in growth in 2017. Some see the ride-hailing company as the anti-Uber, not a bad thing with all the negative drama Uber has garnished in 2017. Lyft in October was given a valuation of $11 billion after it raised $1 billion led by the venture investment arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. That deal boosted Lyft’s valuation from $6.9 billion to $10 billion, from which it has continued to rise.
You would be forgiven in thinking everyone uses ride sharing but ride-sharing networks still account for less than 0.5 percent of all miles traveled in the U.S., according to John Zimmer, president of Lyft. That leaves a lot of story building at least for an IPO.
Spotify
Current Valuation: $13 billion
Probability of going public: High
Among all the carnage in music sales (legal) over the past decade the landscape has changed. Spotify has done very well to have it’s place as the most popular companies in the crowded streaming-music field. Spotify has been able to consistently raise money, though you could argue in world of no fear and digital currency popular music hits all the right buttons.
The company raised $100 million in 2012 and $250 million in 2013. Then in a test of the industry raised $526 million in 2016. The company also issued $1 billion in convertible debt in 2016. Rumors are that Spotify will go public via a direct listing in 2018 rather than the traditional IPO route. Think of Radiohead when they listed there album directly on the site a few years ago. This would add a coolness factor with a direct listing cutting out those leachorus investment bankers underwriting the offering. Anarchy in the U.K..
WeWork
Current Valuation: $20.2 billion
Probability of going public: Moderately High
WeWork has made all the right noises about going public. Back in July the co-working company’s CEO, Adam Neumann spoke at the Brainstorm Tech Conference that WeWork is “100 percent” committed to monetizing for investors and employees, in other words “going public.”
One can also see one of the big 3, Apple $AAPL, Alphabet $GOOGL or Amazon $AMZN grabbing this baby first. With 120,000 members generating an average of $650 per month in revenue this is a great fit ina comeptitive stretched tech world. The company generatest $1 billion annually.
Anyone of these would be a great addition to my portfolio if I can get them before listing:)
Have a great 2018 readers and may the market forces be with you. 🙂