REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
- 2019 was supposed to be the "year of unicorns," but market volatility and the 35-day government shutdown have caused some companies looking to go public to slow down or delay their filing processes.
- Some companies, including dueling ride-hailing competitors Uber and Lyft, have been taking their first official steps toward IPOs despite an uncertain economic environment.
- Here are all the tech startups who have taken steps toward going public in 2019, as well as companies that are rumored to be gearing up for an IPO later this year.
Although the market for tech IPO offerings is being called a "s—show" in 2019, that hasn’t stopped some startups from taking steps toward going public anyway.
But thanks to market volatility at the end of 2018, as well as the government shutdown in January that put public filings on hold, 2019’s "banner year" has started out slow. The down market has left many highly-anticipated tech IPOs to be delayed, and bankers are now anticipating an inundation of IPOs in the second quarter of 2019, beginning in March.
Through the first two months of 2019, there have only been a handful of tech startups that have taken official steps toward going public. Some of the most highly-anticipated startups have made their first moves already — Uber and Lyft are dueling it out to be the first of the two multi-billion dollar ride-hailing platforms to go public.
Here are the tech startups that have taken steps toward going public, and those that are rumored to make their first moves in 2019:
(Valuations and funding raised courtesy of PitchBook.)
Beyond Meat
Courtesy of Beyond Meat
Company role: Animal-free meat products
Year founded: 2009
Headquarters location: El Segundo, California
Valuation: $1.35 billion
Total funding raised: $192.8 million
Reported revenue: $56.4 million in first nine months of 2018 (MarketWatch)
IPO status: Beyond Meat filed to go public under the ticker BYND in November 2018. However, the company has yet to list due to delays and inabilities to get paperwork approved resulting from the 35-day federal government shutdown that went through January.
Lyft
Stephen Lam/Reuters
Company role: Ride-hailing app
Year founded: 2007
Headquarters location: San Francisco, California
Valuation: $15.1 billion
Total funding raised: $4.91 billion
Reported revenue: $909 million in first half of 2018 (The Information)
IPO status: Lyft confidentially filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December. Multiple news outlets have reported Lyft is readying to make its filing public as soon as the end of February, with a roadshow beginning the week of March 18.
PagerDuty
PagerDuty
Company role: IT incident management platform
Year founded: 2009
Headquarters location: San Francisco, California
Valuation: $1.3 billion
Total funding raised: $173.7 million
Reported revenue: $100 million in "annual recurring revenue" as of September 2018 (Forbes)
IPO status: PagerDuty reportedly confidentially filed to go public with the SEC in January, but has faced delays due to the government shutdown.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- $1 billion video-conferencing company Zoom is aiming for an April IPO
- IT’S HERE: Check out Samsung’s $1,980 foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold
- Here’s everything Samsung announced at its big Galaxy S10 event
Source: Business Insider – pleskin@businessinsider.com (Paige Leskin)