Morning Report: Zuora is having a killer opening day. Here’s the math.
priced its IPO above range last night. It sold 11 million shares , $1 per share higher than its previously-indicated range. According to CNBC, that price at “just over $1.4 billion.” The firm had previously raised its range from $9 to $11 per share to $11 to $13.
In its first day of trading, Zuora opened at $20 per share, over 40 percent higher than its list price.
So What?
Why do we care about Zuora’s opening? Because unlike Mulesoft, the company’s financials were only so healthy.
As we wrote when we ran a dive through Zuora’s financial health, it had a surprisingly high mix of services revenue compared to subscription top line. 40 percent of its last fiscal year’s revenue growth came from services income.
Zuora competitor noted to 附近上门 News聽over email that “[t]he magnitude of professional services required to implement and maintain Zuora […] was consistent with what we hear in the market.” Services revenue was gross margin聽negative in each fiscal year we have numbers for, per the company’s SEC filings.
That fact鈥攕tapled to the firm’s stiff GAAP losses, high operating cash consumption, and low cash position鈥攎ade Zuora an interesting IPO candidate, but not an apparent smashing success. Compare that general riff with the firm’s performance today. The obvious gap between a look at the company’s financial health and its first-day performance could imply healthy demand for new tech shares.
And that’s despite an incredible amount of market chop. Who would have thought!
Wrapping with some loose metrics: a super loose valuation calculation has Zuora worth just under $2 billion as of the time of writing, which gives the firm a trailing revenue multiple (through the end of its fiscal 2018) of nearly 12. That’s cask strength.
From The聽:
- Coworking giant聽聽is reportedly paying around $400 million in equity to acquire Chinese competitor聽. The deal marks the latest in a聽string of acquisitions聽for fast-growing WeWork.
Texas startup investment rises, led by Austin
- Texas venture investment rose significantly in the first quarter compared to both the prior quarter and year-ago numbers. As a whole, Texas startups raised just over $600 million in Q1. Austin led among metro areas, bringing in over 60 percent of the state鈥檚 venture dollars.
- , a provider of automated employee background checks, has raised $100 million in a Series C round backed by T. Rowe Price and existing investors. The four-year-old San Francisco company says it currently runs a million background checks a month and plans to nearly double staff this year.
- International payments startup聽聽is looking to raise up to $250 million in a funding round that could value the UK-based company at $1.4 billion. The fundraising comes amid a period of聽rising global investment聽in fintech startups.
Illustration Credit:
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the 附近上门 Daily.


67.1K Followers