Online Platforms On Tap For IPO Listings

Platforms – the online kind – were among the notable filings through this past week for firms seeking to go public. To that end, the shopping segment of the IPO/SPAC Tracker for planned listings year to date stands at 15. Banking, a segment that has gathered continued momentum throughout the year, stands at 48.

Drilling down a bit into the listings activity, the online fashion platform a.k.a. Brands Holding filed for a $100 million IPO. In the documents filed with the SEC, the company said that during 2020, it grew its active customer base by 69 percent to 2.3 million. Orders were up 53 percent, with an average order value up 14 percent over 2019. The sales return ratio was a low 11 percent, the company said in the filing. Sales gained 111 percent during 2020 over 2019’s levels, to $216 million. About 36 percent of revenues were generated in the U.S., and 52 percent came from Australia.

In other announcements, Direct Selling Acquisition, billed a SPAC focused on direct-to-consumer businesses, filed with the SEC this past week to raise as much as $200 million. In its own prospectus, the blank check firm stated that “we believe that direct selling represents one of the most effective means for distributing demonstrable, sampleable and consumable products in the market today. Well-managed companies within the industry are exceptionally profitable and have the ability to scale and grow quickly through the implementation of certain strategies, initiatives, technologies and methods.” Online tools and platforms, Direct Selling said, have “blurred the lines between sales and direct to consumer.”

Direct Selling, Done Globally 

And in a hint of markets that might be under consideration, the S-1 filing notes that “the United States is the largest direct-selling market in the world, with a market share of approximately 20%. However, there are also significant opportunities around the world, with more than 24 countries representing $1 billion-plus direct selling markets,” which includes China, South Korea and Germany as the next largest markets after the U.S.

With evidence of the international scope of IPO activity, as noted by PYMNTS in recent days, in India, supply chain services startup Delhivery is readying an offering that could be worth as much as $1 billion – where shares will be traded as early as March 2022, on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange or both. The company said it has fulfilled more than one billion orders to over 525 million households in the country.

Read more: Supply Chain Startup Delhivery Readies For $1B Mumbai IPO 

Elsewhere,  Nubank, a Brazil-based FinTech with more than 40 million clients in Latin America that looks for business among constituencies ignored by traditional banks, is seeking an IPO that could be worth more than $55 billion.

Also see: Brazilian FinTech Nubank Readies For IPO, Valuation Could Top $55B