Monday.com raises $574 million in Nasdaq IPO at $6.8 billion valuation
Valuation is the second-highest ever for an Israeli tech firm via an IPO process, according to IVC Research Center
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Monday.com, the developer of a workplace collaboration and management platform, said shares would start trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday after the pricing of its initial public offering of shares to raise $574 million at a valuation of about $6.8 billion.
The company said in a statement that it had sold 3.7 million ordinary shares to the public at the price of $155 per share, above its target price. The company had said originally it was targeting a price range of $125 to $140 a share.
The firm has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 370,000 ordinary shares at the initial public offering price.
The IPO gives the firm a market value of some $6.8 billion, based on the outstanding shares listed in filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Including stock options, the company’s diluted value is more than $7.8 billion, Bloomberg said.
The public offering of shares is at the second highest valuation ever for an Israeli tech firm via an IPO process, according to IVC Research Center, which tracks the sector. Playtika, a mobile gaming firm based in Herzliya, held an IPO of shares on the Nasdaq in January this year at a valuation of $13 billion. Playtika was acquired in 2016 by a Chinese consortium, thus making it technically not an Israeli firm, but it is listed in IVC’s data because of its Israeli founders and its continued activities in Israel.
Mobileye, a Jerusalem based developer of self-driving technologies, held an initial public offering of shares in 2014 at a valuation of $5.3 billion. Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017 for a whopping $15.3 billion and delisted its shares from the New York Stock Exchange.
The cloud-based software developed by Monday.com provides customers with “modular building blocks” that allows them to create their own applications and work management tools.
“Monday.com’s strong IPO pricing illustrates appetite for online workplace management software tools remains robust as a consequence of pandemic-induced growth, as employers and employees have had to contend with various challenges presented by the pandemic,” said Nalin Patel, EMEA Private Capital Analyst at PitchBook, in an email. “The IPO is one of the largest listings of an Israel-based tech company, and we continue to see greater quantities of highly valued tech businesses emerge from the country, attract capital, and go on to have a substantial exit as the Israeli VC ecosystem has developed strongly in the last decade.”
The Tel Aviv-based company employed 799 workers as of the end of March. It was founded in 2012 by Roy Mann and Eran Zinman.
Monday.com has raised some $234.1 million to date, according to Start-Up Nation Central. Investors include Silicon Valley-based VC fund Sapphire Ventures, Hamilton Lane, HarbourVest Partners, ION Crossover Partners, Vintage Investment Partners, Genesis Partners and Entrée Capital, Israeli VCs.
Annual revenue totaled $616.1 million in December 2020, up 106% from 2019. First quarter revenue surged 85% to $59 million.
The firm, however, is still losing money. Net loss in 2020 widened to $152.2 million from $91.6 million in 2019, and to $39 million in the first quarter of the year compared to some $20 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Operating expenses in 2020 surged to $289.2 million from some $159 million in 2019.
