The Techee

Two major startups from China have newly filed for their respective IPOs on the US markets. They are Ximalaya , a popular podcast app in the country, and Qiniu , a cloud computing startup backed by investors including local e-commerce giant Alibaba. As required for foreign companies seeking to list their shares on the US markets, Ximalaya and Qiniu have filed their respective F-1 documents with the SEC. The F-1s provide strong insights into both companies' business with information not publicly disclosed before. Details Qiniu: Qiniu's F-1 document shows that of a company with fast-growing revenues over the past few years. It reported $166mn in revenue in 2020, up 100% year-over-year. Qiniu is slightly unprofitable, reporting a small net loss of $3mn in 2020.  For the three months ending March 31, 2021, the company reported $49mn in sales, up 100% year-over-year, and a $4mn loss. With fast-growing revenues and relatively small net losses as reported, Qiniu has strong business p

A major fintech startup from the Latin American region has filed for an IPO on the US markets. That startup is DLocal , which offers cross-border payment gateways for merchants doing business in emerging markets like its home region of Latin America. DLocal has filed an F-1 document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as required for foreign companies seeking to list shares on its markets. The F-1 as usual gives a great insight into DLocal's business with information not publicly known before. Details: DLocal's F-1 document shows that of a fast-growing startup with a history of profitability. It's unlike many companies in the recent crop of IPOs with little or no history of profitability. DLocal made $104mn in revenue in 2020, nearly double its $55mn revenue in the previous year. In 2020, the company reported $28mn in profit, nearly double its profit of $16mn in the previous year, 2019.  DLocal has made its mark as a fast-growing cross-border payment start

A medical apparel startup making waves, and also a handful of enemies, has filed for an initial public offering on the US markets. That startup is Figs , a direct-to-consumer online medical apparel retailer that's majority-owned by film magnate Thomas Tull.  Figs filed on Wednesday with the US SEC to raise money with an IPO. It's headed for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Details: Figs has unveiled an S-1 filing to the SEC indicating its plans to raise up to $100mn in an IPO. More often than not, that $100mn is a placeholder figure used to calculate listing fees and is subject to change. The financial stats from Figs' S-1 document shows that of a fast-growing and highly profitable direct-to-consumer startup, both very desirable outcomes in the current crop of IPOs.  Figs made $263mn in sales in 2020, compared to $110mn in 2019. Its respective annual profits in those years were $112mn and $50mn.  Figs has filed to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the tick

Flywire, a Boston-based payments startup, has filed for an initial public offering on the US markets. It's unveiled its S-1 document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The S-1 as expected provides a peek into the company's business and financials with information not publicly known before. Flywire is a payments startup serving the education, healthcare, and travel industries. It's a platform for cross-border payments which's crucial in those industries. By the numbers: Flywire's S-1 prospectus shows that of a company with healthy and steadily growing revenue over the years. It reports $132 million in revenue in 2020, compared to $95 million in the previous year 2019. Flywire isn't profitable but reports losses not out of place for a fast-growing startup backed by venture money. It posted respective net losses of $11 million and $20 million in 2020 and 2019. Flywire is backed by venture funding to the tune of over $260 million which it&#

A major cybersecurity startup from the UK has held an initial public offering (IPO) and debuted to positive investor fanfare on the domestic public markets. That startup is Darktrace, a fast-growing cybersecurity startup founded by a team of mathematicians in collaboration with British intelligence agencies in 2013. Darktrace sells cyber-defense software that's claimed to harness artificial intelligence in spotting and managing cyber threats. It listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol "DARK". By the numbers: Darktrace debuted to positive investor fanfare that saw its shares soar by 40% on its first day of trading. It raised £143 million ($198m) from the public float at a valuation of £1.7 billion ($2.3bn) which soared to almost £2.4 billion ($3.3bn) on its debut trading day. Darktrace's IPO prospectus reports $199 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year ending June 30, 2020. This was up from $137 million in the previous year, 2019, and $79 mill

A major startup from India is set to soon debut on the public markets in its home country, that startup being Zomato, a popular domestic food delivery service. It's filed with the Indian market regulator for an initial public offering, with its filing as usual giving a delve into the company's business with information not publicly known before. Zomato plans to raise $1.1 billion from its IPO as indicated in its filing. The company's not new to raising huge amounts by having already raised over $2 billion in venture funding privately. A Zomato IPO had been on the rumor mill over the past year and has now been proven certain by the company. Zomato's revenue stats was indicated by the company in its local Indian rupee currency ( as displayed below). We've converted the bits we touched on to dollar rates for better clarity. Zomato's filing reports the equivalent of $184 million in revenue between  April 1 and December 31, 2020. It's not profitable, reporting a

The latest hot technology startup to initiate moves for a public listing is ZipRecruiter, a popular online jobs portal. The company has filed plans for a direct listing, taking the path that several hot technology companies have sought to go public as of late (most recently Coinbase and Squarespace ). ZipRecruiter has unveiled an S-1 filing to the US SEC as is usual for companies planning public listings. Also, as expected, the S-1 filing provides better insight into ZipRecruiter's business with information not publicly known before. To start, ZipRecruiter is very profitable unlike many technology startups of its kind. It reported a net income of $86 million on $418 million in revenue in 2020. In the year before that, it had a small net loss of $6 million on $430 million in revenue. ZipRecruiter has very good gross profit margins, producing over $400 million in sales with about $54 million in "Cost of revenue" both in 2020 and 2019. What majorly eats into the company'

Endeavor Holdings, an entertainment conglomerate best known for owning the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) league, filed for an initial public offering earlier this month. It's the second time that the company filed for an IPO, after doing so in 2019 but halting its plans later. Now, Endeavor is certainly set to go public and expected to begin trading on Wednesday, the 28th of April. It's set the terms for its IPO, as indicated by an updated SEC filing . Endeavor plans to sell 21.3 million shares priced at $23 to $24 to raise over $500 million at the mid-range. Shares of the company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "EDR". In addition to its IPO share sale, Endeavor has arranged a separate private placement to raise $1.8 billion. Out of that amount, $1.35 billion will be Endeavor's proceeds while $437 million will be proceeds for private equity firm KKR, one of Endeavor's main shareholders which's selling shares in the

A German startup that's betting heavily on psychedelic drugs having mainstream medical use soon has filed for an initial public offering in the US. That startup is ATAI Life Sciences, one founded by serial German entrepreneur Christian Angermayer. Backed by nearly $400 million in private funding, ATAI Life Sciences has used its large cash balance to buy up psychedelic drug candidates still in the pipeline. It even recently bought an ambitious startup that wants to use brain-computer interfaces to help treat mental health conditions. ATAI Life Sciences has submitted an S-1 filing for an IPO to the US SEC. It listed a placeholder size offering of $100 million, although that's an amount often used to estimate listing fees and is subject to change at any time. On its end, ATAI is promising investors an opportunity to buy in early into a startup at the forefront of applying psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs to potentially treat mental disorders. Whether investors buy into that

After its recent debut on the public markets, several major shareholders of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase have apparently seen fit to cash out big sums of their stakes collectively amounting to billions of dollars. Among such insiders include Coinbase's founder and CEO Brian Armstrong and early VC investors Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures (USV). Brian Armstrong, Coinbase's CEO, sold around 750,000 shares in three separate transactions and netted $292 million from the sales, as indicated by an SEC filing . The sale represents less than 2% of his total holdings in the company. Just like Armstrong, Coinbase's other co-founder Fred Ehrsam sold 298,789 Class A shares at a weighted-average price of $374.72 and netted $112 million. He sold shares on Coinbase's Wednesday debut at prices ranging from $318.67 to $422.76. Coinbase's CFO Allesia Hass sold 255,500 shares at a price of $388.73 and netted roughly $99 million. It represents roughly 15% of her h

Recursion Pharmaceuticals, a company using machine learning to hunt for new drugs and therapies for ailments, has raised $436 million from an initial public offering (IPO) and begun trading on the public markets. It sold roughly 24.2 million shares for $18 each to raise that amount. Recursion Pharma filed for an IPO last month in March. Debuting at $18 per share on the markets, it closed trading on Friday up more than 70% at $31.34, giving it a market value of over $5 billion. A seven-year-old company, Recursion is part of a group of companies that emerged in the past few years to harness the rapid development and improvement in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in recent years and apply them to drug discovery. Recursion uses AI and machine learning to help discover new drugs. Its customers are primarily pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer, which has a collaborative agreement with it to seek new drugs for fibrotic diseases. Bayer bought a $50 million stake i

Squarespace, the popular web building and hosting company, has unveiled its S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company had before now  filed confidentially for a public listing  this January and raised funding valuing it at $10 billion in March. As usual, the S-1 filing gives a peek into Squarespace's business and financials with information not publicly known before. In Squarespace's case, it paints a picture of a rapidly growing company with a history of profitability, the latter of which's a rarity among the recent crop of public listings from the startup world. Squarespace has been profitable for the past three years even as it grew rapidly. From 2018 to 2020, the company's annual revenue grew from $390 million to $621 million while it maintained profitability in the tens of millions. In 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively, Squarespace reported a profit of $43 million, $58 mi

A consumer goods company founded by popular actress Jessica Alba is the latest company to file for a listing on the public markets. That company is The Honest Company, which was started ten years ago by a team led by Alba. With Alba's popularity, she helped steer The Honest Company into a high sphere of popularity that has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. The company sells a variety of household products with a major pitch of being eco-friendly. The Honest Company has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering. As usual, the S-1 filing gives a strong insight into the company's business with information not publicly known before. The Honest Company made $301 million in revenue in 2020, compared to $236 million in 2019. The company isn't profitable, reporting a net loss of $14.5 million in 2020 and $31 million in 2019. The Honest Company on Friday filed to sell $100 million worth of shares on the public marke

Endeavor, an entertainment company that owns several businesses including the Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC)  sports league, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) once again after abandoning an earlier effort in 2019. Endeavor has sought to go public again after it abandoned earlier efforts to do so due to unfavorable market conditions. It has made some notable changes as it's seeking an IPO for the second time, including the nomination of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to its board of directors. According to its S-1 filing , Endeavor brought in $3.48 billion in revenue for 2020, down from $4.57 billion the previous year. The revenue drop over the year isn't surprising as the 2020 pandemic negatively affected live entertainment activities, particularly the UFC live events for Endeavor. Endeavor's major businesses are the UFC sports league and talent and marketing agencies WME and IMG. Its three primary business segments are sports leagues, talent representat

Knock, a fairly popular prop-tech startup offering people a way to buy and sell homes, is the latest company to get drawn to the center of rumors of a planned IPO. It's recruited investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise it on a bid to go public, according to a Bloomberg News report . Quoting the report, Knock is considering a plan to raise between $400 million to $500 million through an initial public offering. The prop-tech startup is also weighing a direct listing, or of course, the hot way to go public now which's a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). In an interview with Bloomberg, Knock's CEO Sean Black confirmed that his startup hired Goldman Sachs to advise it on its consideration to go public. Per chatters, Knock is aiming for a valuation in the ballpark of $2 billion on the public markets. Knock is a homebuying startup with its major offering known as Knock Home Swap, entailing lending money to customers to buy a new home while helping them sh

After filing confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO) in December, UiPath, the high-flying robotic process automation (RPA) startup, has now unveiled its S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), giving a peek into its financials with information not publicly known before. With its S-1 filing made, UiPath is set to begin trading soon on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "PATH". As to financials, UiPath's S-1 filing shows $608 million revenue for its most recent fiscal year ending January 31, 2021. In the previous year, the company made $336 million in revenue. UiPath isn't profitable, showing net losses of $92 million and a much higher $520 million in its most recent fiscal year and the one before that respectively. Most of UiPath's revenue comes from its 'Licenses' segment, that is selling licenses for the use of its software to corporations. The second-highest segment after that is grouped as "Maintenan

After confidentially filing for an initial public offering in January and paving its path onto the public markets in the process, it's apparent that Squarespace, the popular web building and hosting service, isn't yet done with raising money on the private markets. It's just announced the close of a $300 million funding round valuing it at $10 billion. The new $300 million round is likely Squarespace's last before it debuts on the public markets, mimicking that of several other tech companies that have closed big funding rounds just on the cusp of their initial public offerings, such as UiPath  and Instacart . Squarespace's $300 million round came from a mix of new and existing investors including General Atlantic, Accel, D1 Capital Partners, Tiger Global, Dragoneer, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price. With it, Squarespace has now raised a total of nearly $600 million of private venture funding. The $10 billion valuation for Squarespace with this round is noticeably high

As it looks, many big names in the business and technology world don't want to get left out of the boom of special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and thus have moved to launch their own SPACs or take directorship positions at those formed by others.  Many of such big names from the technology world have launched and collectively raised billions of dollars for their respective SPACs, among them Peter Thiel of Palantir, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and Zillow Co-Founder Spencer Rascoff.  Likewise, many in the finance world have launched big SPACs, among such hedge fund tycoon Bill Ackman who holds the record for the biggest amount ever raised by a SPAC, and investor Michael Klein whose SPAC recently sealed a deal to merge with ambitious electric car startup Lucid Motors  in what's the biggest-ever SPAC merger deal by market value. Now, two big names from the finance and technology world have crossed over and teamed up to form a SPAC, being Mich

The latest big name to get into the boom of special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) by launching its own SPAC is Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate services giant. It's formed its own SPAC named  C&W Acquisition Corp that's looking to raise $250 million from an initial public offering. C&W Acquisition Corp has filed an S-1 document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), making known its intent to raise $250 million by selling 25 million share units for $10 each. Its IPO is being underwritten by Citigroup and BofA Securities. As it's sponsored by a real estate services firm that's one of the biggest of its kind, it's no surprise that C&W Acquisition Corp is targeting to merge with a business in the property-tech and real estate sector as indicated by its S-1 document. It doesn't seem that the SPAC will have a problem finding a merger target thanks to the influence of its sponsor Cushman & Wakefield. Cushman &a

Barely two weeks ago, on-demand grocer Instacart announced a $265 million funding round that valued it at $39 billion, with the round coming ahead of an expected IPO for the company.  Now, Instacart has further hinted at IPO plans by naming a new board member who's well-versed in seeing tech companies through IPOs and is currently the CEO of one of the hottest public software companies, Snowflake Computing. Instacart has announced that it's appointed Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman to its board. He'll join six other members on the board, including Instacart's Founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta and representatives from investment firms Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and D1 Capital Partners. Frank Slootman. Slootman is a tech veteran who has seen three big tech companies through IPOs as a CEO, first at Data Domain Inc, then ServiceNow, and currently at Snowflake. It's likely that Instacart has added him to his board thanks to his experience of seeing tech companies t