As expected, August has been fairly quiet for the initial public offering (IPO) market. This is usually the case as many investors are on vacation. For the most part, the next batch of upcoming IPOs won’t hit until around mid-September.
When they do, it’s a good bet that there will be lots of action. One reason is that markets are hitting new highs, mostly driven by the mega tech operators like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Of course, there have been plenty of red-hot IPOs this year as well. Just look at offerings from DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU), Zuora (NYSE:ZUO) and Dropbox (NASDAQ:DBX).
Then what are some of the upcoming IPOs to consider? Here’s a look at three:
Upcoming IPOs: SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey, which is a provider of online polling services, has been around since the late 1990s. A key part of the growth strategy has been M&A. And yes, this hasn’t been cheap. The company has raised a hefty $1.1 billion so far. Of this, about $322 million is debt.
The SurveyMonkey platform has over 16 million active users across 190 countries and there are over 600,000 paying customers. The company also has a set of premium products, such as SurveyMonkey Genius (which leverages Artificial Intelligence) and SurveyMonkey Enterprise.
In terms of growth, it has been decent. For the first half of this year, revenues increased from $106.5 million to $122.2 million. Although, the company has been able to post strong cash flows, coming to $22 million this year. Keep in mind that SurveyMonkey has a capital-light model.
There’s a personal note to this IPO as well. The former CEO, Dave Goldberg, died in 2015. He was the spouse of Sheryl Sandberg, who is the chief operator officer of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). She plans to donate all her 9.9% equity stake to charity.
Upcoming IPOs: Eventbrite
Back in 2006, married couple Kevin and Julia Hartz set out to start a business to leverage the internet to manage events. The business was Eventbrite.
All in all, the timing was spot on. From the start, business took off and the platform has become the industry leader. Last year, it helped to issue 203 million tickets for roughly three million events.
There are some important drivers for the business. One is that events are an effective way for marketing. According to eMarketer, about 70% of B2B companies plan to spend more on these activities in the coming year. Next, the ubiquity of social media and mobile have provided a strong distribution footprint.
As for gthe rowth of Eventbrite, it has been robust. Last year, revenues jumped by 51% to $201.6 million (the company’s business model involves charging a per-ticket fee). However, it’s important to note that the company is still losing large amounts of money. For 2017, the net loss was $38.5 million.
Upcoming IPOs: Nio
Founded in 2014, Nio has been on the fast track. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic vehicles in China. As should be no surprise, it has been borrowing from the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) playbook.
For example, Nio launched its ES8 seven-seat SUV a few months ago. Yes, it is similar to Tesla’s Model X, but at a third of the price tag. What’s more, at the end of this year, Nio has plans to launch an SUV — called the ES6 — with an even lower price point, so as to appeal to the mainstream market.
For the most part, the company is generating little volume, with under 500 deliveries of the ES8. Revenues are also about $7 million and the net loss is a whopping $502 million for 2018.
The Chinese market for EVs is highly competitive. Many of the operators have large partners, such as Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU). As for Nio, it has been able to get an equity investment from Tencent (OTCMKTS:TCEHY), which operates the largest social network in China.
The company plans to sell 160 million shares at a range of $6.25 to $8.25. It also plans to list on NYSE under the symbol of NIO.
Tom Taulli is the author of High-Profit IPO Strategies, All About Commodities and All About Short Selling. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
