Report: Waystar Plans to Launch IPO in Early June

Waystar is reportedly planning to launch its initial public offering (IPO) in early June, seeking a valuation of $5 billion or $6 billion.

The healthcare payments company will begin its roadshow pitch to investors later in May, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday (May 14), citing unnamed sources.

Waystar did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The valuation the company is likely to seek would be higher than the $2.7 billion it was valued at in 2019 when private equity firm EQT acquired a majority stake together with Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, according to the report.

It was reported in October that Waystar put its plans to go public on hold shortly before it was set to launch an investors roadshow the following month.

The company delayed its planned IPO at that time because of a shaky IPO market, stock market declines, conflict in Israel and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate plans, the WSJ reported on Oct. 31.

When Waystar filed to go public in October, the company said in its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that its cloud-based platform improves “the administrative headwinds faced by providers.”

Waystar’s platform uses machine learning (ML) and in-house artificial intelligence (AI) to offer financial clearance activities, which in turn verify insurance benefits, automate authorizations and help practices collect revenues, as claims are automatically submitted and tracked.

The company said at the time that the platform serves 30,000 clients tied to about 1 million providers across a subscription model and that it facilitated more than 4 billion healthcare payments transactions in 2022.

Goldman Sachs said in February that 2024 could market a recovery for the IPO market.

“We expect the U.S. economy will continue to grow, the nominal 2-year UST yield will decline modestly, and valuations will remain elevated relative to history,” Goldman Sachs strategists wrote at the time. “If soft data improve to match the hard economic data and equity investor pricing of economic growth, it could lead to a further increase in our IPO Issuance Barometer in coming months.”

At the time, that barometer had risen to its highest level.