Two of the year’s most anticipated public listings — DoorDash and Airbnb — will seek higher than expected valuations for their IPOs, new filings show. Each company has seen its fortunes affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with DoorDash surging and Airbnb seeing its business drop off sharply. But both have priced their IPOs in roughly the same range.
Food delivery platform DoorDash is seeking to raise $2.8 billion in its IPO, at a valuation of up to $30 billion. Its most recent valuation pegged it at $16 billion, following a fundraising round of $400 million in June. DoorDash will list 33 million shares priced between $75 and $85.
DoorDash’s star has risen during the pandemic, as restaurants closed to in-person dining. Its IPO prospectus showed it had $1.9 billion in revenue for the nine months ending September 30th, up from $587 million a year earlier. It actually turned a profit of $23 million on revenue of $675 million during the quarter ending June 30th.
The company has more than 18 million customers, about 1 million delivery workers (whom it refers to as “Dashers”), and works with more than 390,000 merchants. It will list its shares under the symbol DASH on the New York Stock Exchange.
Home rental platform Airbnb will aim for a range between $30 billion and $33 billion, above the $30 billion that was expected, The Wall Street Journal reported. Airbnb was valued at $31 billion in 2017, but it dropped to around $18 billion amid a sharp drop-off in bookings due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol ABNB.
Its IPO prospectus showed the company has seen annual net losses every year since its launch, and it warned that it may not be able to ever turn a profit. For the nine months ending on September 30th, Airbnb saw a net loss of $696.9 million on revenue of $2.52 billion, compared to a loss of $322.8 billion for the same period last year.
So far in 2020, Airbnb has sold $17.9 billion in gross bookings, a drop of 39 percent from the year earlier.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/30/21726364/airbnb-doordash-valuations-higher-ipo-wall-street