As the month of August draws to a close, last week we reported several initial public offerings (IPOs) which are lined up for the coming weeks along with some notable ones that have already taken place.
US-based data management software producer Snowflake filed to raise up to $100m in which could potentially give exits to its corporate backers – financial services firm Capital One and enterprise software provider Salesforce. The $100m is a placeholder amount, while the final figure is likely to be considerably higher. Snowflake was valued at $12.4bn in its last $479m series G round earlier this year. The company has developed software that enables organisations to manage and unify large quantities of information from data silos to provide valuable insights.
US-based dialysis technology producer Outset Medical also filed for a $100m IPO. The flotation could give medical device maker Baxter International an exit. Outset is developing a system that can perform kidney dialysis using only a tap and an electrical outlet. The company received US regulatory approval for home use of its product in March this year and intends to channel the IPO proceeds into growing its sales and customer support.
Yidu Tech, a China-based healthcare software provider that counts corporates Tencent and Sunshine Insurance as investors, filed for IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Yidu has built a software platform dubbed YiduCore which enables hospitals and other healthcare providers to standardise data so it can be processed to generate insights that can inform patient care.
In addition to IPO intentions, we also reported actual sizeable IPOs taking place recently. . KE Holdings, a China-based online estate agent also known as Beike, went public in a $2.12bn IPO in which internet group Tencent invested 160m.
Kymera Therapeutics, a US-based small molecule drug developer backed by pharmaceutical firms Pfizer, Sanofi, Merck & Co, Amgen and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, raised close to $174m in its IPO. The company is working on small molecule therapeutics designed to attack diseases by degrading targeted disease-causing proteins
There seem to have been fewer IPOs in the first half this year than in 2019, as our GCV Analytics chart below shows. Aside from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year has not had (at least yet) any much awaited “landmark” IPOs of unicorns like Uber or Lyft. We are yet to see if cheap money poured into public markets will lure more unicorns to float by the end of this year.
