Atea Pharmaceuticals (AVIR) began trading on the Nasdaq on Fri 30 Oct 20

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing antiviral therapeutics for patients suffering from viral infections. Its lead product candidate is AT-527, a novel antiviral agent that is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. 

• Sector(s): Healthcare
• Industry: Biotechnology
• Full Time Employees: 39
• Incorporated in 2012 
• Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts
• https://ateapharma.com/

Atea Pharmaceuticals upsized offering by 1.5 mln shares and prices 12.5 mln share IPO at $24.00 per share, at the high end of the $22-24 expected range

NeoGames (NGMS) began trading on the Nasdaq on Thur 19 Nov 20

NeoGames S.A. provides a suite of iLottery technology solutions worldwide.

The company also offers software development and platforms sub-licensing services; and regulation and compliance, payment processing, risk management, player relationship management, and player value optimization services. 

• Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

NeoGames priced 4.8 mln share IPO at $17.00 per share, above the expected range of $14-16

Opened at $21.15

Leslie's (LESL) began trading on the Nasdaq on Thur 29 Oct 20

The company sells pool and spa care supplies and services in the United States.
The firm sells its products and services through 934 branded locations and an online presence.

• Sector(s): Consumer Cyclical
• Industry: Home Improvement Retail
• Full Time Employees: 5,000
• Founded in 1963
• Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
• http://lesliespool.com

 

 

 Management says it has a dominant market share of 15% with a physical network that is 'larger than the sum of our twenty largest competitors.

Phoenix, Arizona-based Leslie's was founded in 1963 to create a network of retail locations providing pool and spa products and services.

Management is headed by Chief Executive Officer Michael Egeck, who has been with the firm since February 2020 and was previously CEO of PSEB Group, a company comprising the Eddie Bauer brand and PACSUN teen retailer.

Leslie's has received at least $278 million from investors including private equity firm L Catterton.

EZGO Technologies (EZGO) began trading on the Nasdaq on Tue 26 Jan 21

EZGO Technologies Ltd. engages in the sale and rental of lithium batteries and  e-bicycles and e-tricycles in China. 

• Sector(s): Consumer Cyclical
• Industry: Recreational Vehicles
• Full Time Employees: 83
• Incorporated in 2019 
• Headquartered in Changzhou, China
• http://www.ezgotech.com.cn

The stock opened at $10.59 and hit a high of $19.44, before closing Tuesday at $18.11, up nearly 353%. The company raised $11.2 million late Monday, selling 2.8 million shares at $4 each. 

Shoals Technologies Group (SHLS) plans to raise $1.6 billion in its IPO

Solar equipment supplier Shoals Technologies Group (SHLS) plans to raise $1.6 billion with an initial public offering that's drawing heightened attention in a hot market. The Shoals IPO trades Wednesday.

With solar stocks trading near record highs, Shoals is offering 70 million shares at a price range of $22 to $23. It originally planned to offer 50 million shares at $19 to $21. The price and volume rise indicates strong interest among institutional investors.

Solar stocks have rallied since the election of President Joe Biden, who made green energy initiatives a big part of his campaign. In addition, the outlook for solar stocks is bolstered by investors speculating on an environmental infrastructure boom.

Based in suburban Nashville, Tenn., Shoals provides an array of gear needed to operate solar energy systems, according to the Shoals IPO filing. Moreover, it provides the components needed to carry electric currents from solar panels to solar inverters and ultimately to the power grid. This includes cable assemblies, wireless monitoring systems, junction boxes, transition enclosures, and splice boxes.

The full setup of gear is referred to as electrical balance of system, or "EBOS" solutions.

"EBOS components are mission-critical products that have a high consequence of failure, including lost revenue, equipment damage, fire damage, and even serious injury or death," the company said in its IPO filing. "As a result, we believe customers prioritize reliability and safety over price when selecting EBOS solutions."

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Shoals reported revenue of $136.7 million, up 28% from the year-ago period. Net income was $29.5 million, vs. $17.3 million a year ago.

-=Collective Growth Corporation (CGRO) partners with Macnica

 

Collective Growth Corporation partners with Macnica, Japan's largest distribution company

Innoviz Technologies, an Israeli LiDAR company founded by former officers of Israel's Defence Forces elite technology division, known as "Unit 81", which recently announced its intention to go public through a SPAC merger with Collective Growth Corporation, based in Texas, at a market value of $1.4B, has partnered with Macnica, Japan's largest distribution company and a global technology solutions distribution company, to sell its flagship product, InnovizOne, in Japan for the first time. InnovizOne has been selected by BMW for use in its fully electric iX autonomous car program.

Macnica announced their intention to sell InnovizOne in the Japanese market last month, and have since been inundated with purchase orders for Innoviz's solid-state 3D MEMS-based long-range LiDAR, which leads the high-spec LiDAR market by dint of its maturity and Innoviz's long-standing and very close relationship with the Tier1 company Magna and customer BMW.

IPOs this week : Jan 25 - 29, 21 (wk 4)

IPOs expected to price 

• Shoals Technologies (SHLS), 

• Qualtrics International (XM), 

• ZIM Integrated Shipping (ZIM), 

• Vinci Partners (VINP) and 

• Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (OCDX).  

PubMatic (PUBM) began trading on the Nasdaq on Wed 9 Dec 20

PubMatic runs a sell-side advertising platform that runs real-time programmatic ad transactions and allows publishers and app developers to sell space to advertisers across media, including display or video ads on desktop, mobile app, mobile web or streaming TV. 

IPO: PubMatic (PUBM) priced 5.9 mln share IPO at $20.00 per share, above the expected range of $16-18

• Sector(s): Technology
• Industry: Software—Application
• Founded in 2006
• Headquartered in Redwood City, California
• http://pubmatic.com

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PubMatic’s clients, as of December, include publishers like Verizon Media Group and News Corp and app makers like Electronic Arts and Zynga. The Verizon relationship is especially important. It made up 28% of its revenue in 2019 and 21% of its revenue in the first nine months of 2020. The company competes with divisions of Google along with other supply-side platforms like Magnite, which was formed as a product of a 2020 merger between public ad tech companies Telaria and Rubicon Project. 

SAP spinout Qualtrics to go public next week

Qualtrics, which provides “experience management” software, was acquired by SAP for $8 billion in 2018, after abandoning a previous plan for an initial offering.

• Founded: 2002
• Co-headquartered in Seattle, Washington and Provo, Utah 

Now a wholly owned unit of German software giant SAP (ticker: SAP), Qualtrics is scheduled to go public next week. On Tuesday, the company raised the expected price range for its initial public offering to between $22 and $26 a share, up from a previous forecast of $20 to $24.

The company will sell 49.2 million class A shares in the offering, while SAP will hold on to all 423.2 million of the company’ supervoting class B shares. In total, there will be about 510 million shares outstanding, assuming the exercise of the “green shoe” overallotment option, which would indicate a valuation at the top of the range of more than $13 billion.

Qualtrics, which provides “experience management” software, was acquired by SAP for $8 billion in 2018, after abandoning a previous plan for an initial offering.

The company said in the filing that it had sales in the rolling 12 months ended Sept. 30 of $723 million, up 36% from a year ago. For the nine months through the same date, revenue was $550 million, up 31%. The company had a net loss of $258 million in the nine-month period.

Investors have recently gobbled up shares of newly public enterprise software companies—think of stocks like Snowflake (SNOW), C3.ai (AI), and Palantir Technologies (PLTR). Qualtrics isn’t growing nearly as fast as Snowflake, or even Palantir, and the company is losing gobs.

Assume Qualtrics can grow the top line another 30% next year, and you get a figure in the $940 million range. If you assume the stock prices at the top of the range and if the green shoe is exercised, the valuation would be around 14 times revenue, which is pricier than legacy enterprise software companies, but a lot less than the likes of Snowflake or C3.ai. Current parent SAP trades for around five times forward revenues, for instance.

Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are co-managing the underwriting group. Qualtrics expects to trade on Nasdaq market under the ticker XM.

IPOs this week : Jan 18 - 22, 21 (wk 3)

IPOs expected to price 

• MYT Netherlands Parent B.V. (MYTE)

• Dream Finders Homes (DFH)

• Patria Investments (PAX)

• Qualtrics (XM)

IPO lockup expirations

• Jamf Holding (NASDAQ:JAMF) and Ebang International (NASDAQ:EBON) on January 18

• Accolade (NASDAQ:ACCD), Annexon (NASDAQ:ANNX) and Inozyme Pharma (NASDAQ:INZY) on January 19

• iTeos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ITOS), Montrose Environment Group (NYSE:MEG) and Nurix Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NRIX) on January 20

IPO quiet period expirations

• Inhibikase Therapeutics (NASDAQ:IKT) 

PurposeBuilt Brands Files for IPO

PurposeBuilt Brands, which provides specialty cleaning and disinfecting products, filed on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. 

PurposeBuilt Brands offers specialty cleaning and disinfecting products from a portfolio of household cleaning brands. These commercial and specialty cleaning brands include Urnex, Five Star, Opti-Cide, Weiman, Goo Gone and Wright's. Available in over 475,000 stores, PurposeBuilt Brands sells its products through national retailers in the the home improvement, mass, hardware and grocery sectors. 

The Gurnee, IL-based company was founded in 1941 and booked $265 million in sales for the 12 months ended September 30, 2020. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol PBLT. PurposeBuilt Brands filed confidentially on November 25, 2020. Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Baird, BofA Securities, Credit Suisse and UBS Investment Bank are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

Driven Brands Holdings (DRVN) began trading on the Nasdaq on Fri 15 Jan 21

Driven Brands Holdings Inc. provides automotive services to retail and commercial customers in North America and internationally. It operates through Maintenance; Car Wash, Paint, Collision & Glass; and Platform Services segments.

• Sector(s): Consumer Cyclical
• Industry: Auto & Truck Dealerships
• Full Time Employees: 6,900
• founded in 1972 and is 
• headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• http://www.drivenbrands.com 

DoorDash (DASH) : 2 and 5-week performance

Laredo Petroleum (LPI) : 9-year performance

AbCellera Biologics (ABCL) began trading on the Nasdaq on Fri 11 Dec 20

• Sector(s): Healthcare
• Industry: Biotechnology
• Full Time Employees: 174
• Founded in 2012 
• Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada
• http://www.abcellera.com

AbCellera Biologics  CEO Carl Hansen on CNBC on Wed 1/13/21

Oak Street Health (OSH): 5-month performance

 

Silverback Therapeutics (SBTX) began trading on the Nasdaq on Fri 4 Dec 20

Update Jul 21, 2022:  Seattle-based Silverback Therapeutics will merge with another biotech company, San Diego-based ARS Pharmaceuticals.

*****

Silverback Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops tissue targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, chronic viral infections, and other serious diseases. Its lead product candidate is SBT6050, which is in a Phase I/Ib clinical trial, a TLR8 agonist linker-payload conjugated to a HER2-directed monoclonal antibody that targets tumors, such as breast, gastric, and non-small cell lung cancers.

• Sector(s): Healthcare
• Industry: Biotechnology
• founded in 2016 
• Headquartered in Seattle, Washington
• http://www.silverbacktx.com

Silverback Therapeutics (SBTX) priced 11.5 mln share IPO at $21.00 per share,above the $17-19 expected range. Opened for trading at $29.

Upstart Holdings (UPST) began trading on the Nasdaq on Wed 16 Dec 20

Upstart Holdings, Inc. operates a cloud- based artificial intelligence (AI) lending platform. 

• Sector(s): Financial Services
• Industry: Credit Services
• Full Time Employees: 554
• Incorporated in 2012 
• Headquartered in San Mateo, California
• http://www.upstart.com

IPOs this week : Jan 11 - 15, 21 (wk 2)

IPOs expected to price 

• Affirm Holdings (AFRM), 

• Driven Brands (DRVN), 

• Kuke Music Holding (KUKE), 

• Motorsport Games (MSGM), 

• Petco Health and Wellness (WOOF), 

• Playtika Holding (NYSE:PLTK), 

• Poshmark (POSH) and 

• Qilian International Holding (QLI).

Consumer tech SPAC Science Strategic Acquisition Alpha files for a $225 million IPO

Science Strategic Acquisition Alpha, a blank check company formed by venture firm Science Inc. targeting consumer tech, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $225 million in an initial public offering.

The Santa Monica, CA-based company plans to raise $225 million by offering 22.5 million units at $10. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one-third of a warrant, exercisable at $11.50. At the proposed deal size, Science Strategic Acquisition Alpha would command a market value of $281 million.

The company is led by CEO and Chairman Michael Jones, CFO Thomas Dare, and President Peter Pham, who collectively co-founded studio and venture fund Science Inc. and have served as Managing Directors since 2011. Science Strategic Acquisition Alpha’s search for a target will be differentiated and targeted on the areas in which the management team has expertise in driving business transformations and creating value for investors: Direct-to-consumer (D2C) Brands, D2C Services & Marketplaces, and Mobile & Social Entertainment.

Science Strategic Acquisition Alpha was founded in 2020 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol SSAAU. It filed confidentially on November 6, 2020. Credit Suisse is the sole bookrunner on the deal.

Space company Momentus looks to go public through a SPAC

ticker: MNTS

• Space transportation company Momentus Space was founded in 2017 to develop a “last-mile” transportation system for satellites launched into orbit, using a novel water-based propulsion system. 
• The company is expected to go public on the NASDAQ in early 2021through Stable Road’s special purpose acquisition vehicle that it raised $172.5 million for in November 2019.
• Momentus offers a “last mile delivery” service for spacecraft, with a transfer vehicle that helps deliver satellites from a rocket to a specific orbit.
• Stable Road’s SPAC is listed under the ticker symbol “SRAC.” Stable Road filings for the SPAC as recently as June note that it was “focusing its search on companies in the cannabis industry,” although the firm did not limit itself to acquiring a company in that particular sector.

Mikhail Kokorich visits SpaceX headquarters in 2012 alongside then-Roscosmos director Vladimir Popovkin, with Elon Musk in the background.

Momentus is a Santa Clara, California-based company that offers a “last mile delivery” service for spacecraft. The core of Momentus’ business is Vigoride, which is a transfer vehicle that helps deliver satellites from a rocket to a specific orbit. Vigoride consists of a frame, an engine, solar panels, avionics and a set of satellite deployers and is especially designed for satellites that hitch a ride on large rockets, an increasingly popular industry practice called ridesharing.

Investors worry that the transaction may face unusual scrutiny because Momentus CEO Mikhail Kokorich, though credited with a majority of the company’s inventions, is legally barred from accessing the firm’s technology by US national security law, according to a Nov. 2 SEC filing.

SPAC critics say the method of going public lends itself to companies looking to avoid the scrutiny of a typical public offering in a frothy market driven by retail investors.

Developing cutting-edge space technology is a legally challenging business. Much of what makes the most advanced commercial satellites effective—microchips that can withstand the harsh environment of space, precision engineering and manufacturing, finely-calibrated sensors, and powerful software algorithms—is considered “dual-use” technology; that is, it has both civilian and military applications. The US government regulates this technology to make sure foreign governments don’t have access to it.

IPOs this week : Jan 4 - 8, 21 (wk 1)

 IPO quiet period expirations 

• Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB), 
• DoorDash (NYSE:DASH), 
• Hydrofarm (NASDAQ:HYFM) and 
• C3.ai (NYSE:AI) 

All four stocks trade well above their IPO pricing levels. 

IPO lockup expirations

• BlueCity (NASDAQ:BLCT), 
• Inventiva (NASDAQ:IVA), 
• Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) and 
• Poseida Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PSTX).

Technology SPAC Ark Global Acquisition files for a $250 million IPO

Ark Global Acquisition, a blank check company led by a former Groupon CEO and QIA fund manager targeting disruptive technology, filed on Wednesday with the SEC to raise up to $250 million in an initial public offering.

The Nashville, TN-based company plans to raise $250 million by offering 25 million units at $10. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one-third of a warrant, exercisable at $11.50. At the proposed deal size, Ark Global Acquisition would command a market value of $313 million.

The company is led by CEO and Director Rich Williams, current advisor at The Value Studio and former CEO of Groupon, and Chairman Sultan Almaadeed, founder of investment platform ENVST and former fund manager at the Qatar Investment Authority who served as Chairman of the Tender Committee. They are joined by CFO Stephen Krenzer, founder of Trabuco Canyon Advisors and former COO of Groupon. 

Ark Global Acquisition intends to explore acquisitions of disruptive technology companies with defensible market positions and an enterprise value of more than $750 million, focusing on consumer internet and marketplaces, healthtech, fintech and mobility companies.

Ark Global Acquisition was founded in 2020 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ARKI.U. Jefferies is the sole bookrunner on the deal.