The IPO Buzz: Brain Cancer Biotech’s Small IPO and Reddit Watch

Brain cancer biotech NeOnc Technologies Holdings Inc. (NTHI Proposed) is set to price its $75 million IPO during the week of March 11, 2024. But it’s coming at a time when the Reddit watch party has kicked into high gear. Reddit (RDDT Proposed), the social media platform famous for its r/Wall Street Bets forum, is close to filing terms for its long-awaited IPO – perhaps as soon as today – Monday, March 11, 2024 – according to Bloomberg, the Financial Times and a flurry of other financial news sources.

Bloomberg reported that Reddit and some of its shareholders are planning to raise up to almost $750 million in one of the biggest IPOs so far this year, citing “people familiar with the matter,” according to its story published online on Sunday afternoon (March 10, 2024). Reddit and its selling shareholders intend to sell 22 million shares for $31.00 to $34.00 each, according to these people, who did not want to be identified because the information was not yet public, Bloomberg said. About 1.76 million shares would be set aside for active Reddit users who opened accounts before Jan. 1, 2024 – and those shares would not be subject to a lock-up period – Bloomberg reported.

Reddit, founded in 2005, is not profitable. The San Francisco-based social media company reported a net loss of $90.8 million on revenue of $804 million for the year 2023, according to Reddit’s S-1 filing.

The Financial Times reported on Friday (March 8, 2024) that Reddit – a New York Stock Exchange listing – plans to start its IPO roadshow on Monday (March 11, 2024). Wall Street and Main Street, of course, are still waiting for Reddit to file its IPO terms in an S-1/A prospectus – and set the pricing date. That filing could come as soon as just before sunrise in New York today (Monday, March 11, 2024) after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opens the blinds to let the sunshine in.

Targeting Brain Cancer

Meanwhile, NeOnc Technologies Holdings Inc. (NTHI Proposed), a Phase II clinical biotech targeting brain cancer, plans to price its small IPO on Tuesday night, March 12, 2024, to trade Wednesday, March 13, on the NASDAQ.

NeOnc Technologies, founded in 2008, is offering 6.0 million shares at $11.25 to $13.75 to raise $75.0 million, according to the prospectus.

Loop Capital Markets is the sole book-runner, with Maxim Group and Brookline Capital Markets acting as co-managers.

NeOnc Technologies, based in Westlake Village, California, is “devoted to developing new drugs with new delivery modes” to treat aggressive brain cancers, the prospectus says. These brain cancers include glioblastoma, a primary brain cancer, and secondary brain cancers that have metastasized and spread to the brain from other cancers throughout the body such as melanoma, breast cancer and lung cancer, the prospectus says.

NeOnc’s two leading drug product candidates are:

*NEO100 – a purified intranasal form of perillyl acid – in a Phase 1/II trial to treat patients with malignant skull-based meningioma.

*NEO212 – a covalently conjugated molecule combining the chemotherapeutic drug temozolomide with perillyl alcohol – in a Phase I/II clinical trial that began in the fourth quarter of 2023. In this trial, NEO212 is administered orally to patients with primary brain tumors (i.e., malignant gliomas) and secondary brain tumors (i.e., brain metastases derived from peripheral tumors such as tumors of the lung, breast, skin/melanoma, etc.)

Aquatic Drones, Pontoon Boats and ATVs 

The rest of this week’s IPO Calendar is made up of a flurry of small IPOs, including RanMarine Technology B.V. (RAN Proposed), an aquatic drone maker in The Netherlands, and Massimo Group (MAMO Proposed), a Dallas-based manufacturer of pontoon boats and ATVs, also known as “all terrain vehicles.”

Stay tuned.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

The IPO Buzz: Astera Labs (ALAB Proposed) Sets Terms for $507.3 Million IPO in Mid-March

Astera Labs (ALAB Proposed), the semiconductor connectivity company, unveiled the terms for its $507.3 million IPO – 17.8 million shares at a price range of $27.00 to $30.00 a share – in an S-1/A filing early today – Friday, March 8, 2024. The IPO is expected to price on Tuesday night, March 19, 2024, to trade Wednesday, March 20, on the NASDAQ.  (Editor’s Note: Corrects typo in the pricing date to read 2024 and not “2023” – IPOScoop regrets the error.)

Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are leading the joint book-runners’  team, which includes Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities, Evercore ISI and Jefferies.

The Santa Clara, California-based company is offering 14.79 million shares and selling stockholders are offering 3.01 million shares, according to the prospectus. Astera Labs will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the selling stockholders’ shares.

Astera Labs will have a valuation – or market cap – of about $4.29 billion, assuming the IPO is priced at its $28.50 mid-point.

The company, founded in 2017, says its mission is “to innovate, design, and deliver semiconductor-based connectivity solutions that are purpose-built to unleash the full potential of cloud and AI infrastructure,” according to the prospectus.

Stay tuned. 

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

 

The IPO Buzz: ARCH Venture’s Boundless Bio Files Plans for $100 Million IPO

ARCH Venture Partners is the big name behind Boundless Bio Inc. (BOLD Proposed), a Phase 1 cancer biotech that filed plans for a $100 million IPO on Wednesday (March 6, 2024) after the closing bell. The S-1 filing did not disclose terms for the IPO. This is a NASDAQ listing.

Boundless Bio was founded in 2018 by ARCH Venture Partners and Paul Mischel, M.D., a Stanford  professor who is internationally recognized for his expertise in extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA), the prospectus says. Dr. Mischel, the vice chair of research and a professor of pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, is the chairman of Boundless Bio’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Goldman Sachs, Leerink Partners, Piper Sandler and Guggenheim Securities are the joint book-runners.

Extrachromosomal DNA – known as ecDNA – is “a root cause of oncogene amplification observed in more than 14 percent of cancer patients,” the prospectus says. An example of an oncogene is the HER2 oncogene found in some breast cancer and ovarian cancer cells, according to the City of Hope website.

Boundless Bio, based in San Diego, says in the prospectus: “ecDNA are large circular units of nuclear DNA that are a primary mechanism of gene amplification and, like oncogene amplifications, are detected only in cancer cells, not in healthy cells.”

In the prospectus, Boundless Bio says that “we are, to our knowledge, the first company formed to develop new cancer medicines directed at ecDNA and the only company to date to bring an ecDTx into the clinic to treat cancer patients.” The California clinical biotech says that “we consider ourselves to be the world’s leading ecDNA company.” 

The Phase 1 biotech is developing small molecule drugs called ecDTx that are “designed to preferentially kill ecDNA-bearing cancer cells, but not healthy cells without ecDNA,” Boundless Bio says in the prospectus.

Boundless Bio’s lead ecDTx candidate, known as BBI-355, is “a novel, oral, selective inhibitor of checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1), which manages ecDNA replication and transcription in cancer cells,” the prospectus says.

This lead ecDTX drug candidate, BBI-355, is being studied in a first-in-human Phase 1/2 clinical trial called POTENTIATE with clinical trial results expected in the second half of 2024, according to Boundless Bio’s prospectus. The company has two other ecDNA drug candidate programs, the S-1 filing says.

Boundless Bio is typical of most Phase 1 biotechs in that it has a history of net losses and no revenue from product sales, according to the prospectus.

For the year ended Dec. 31, 2023, Boundless Bio reported a net loss of $49.43 million on no product revenue, the prospectus says.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

 

The IPO Buzz: Ryde Group (RYDE) Prices IPO at $4.00 – Low End

Singapore’s ride-hailing app – Ryde Group Ltd. (RYDE) – priced its micro-cap IPO at $4.00 – the low end of its $4.00-to-$5.00 price range – on Tuesday night, March 5, 2024. Ryde Group priced 3.0 million Class A ordinary shares – the number in the prospectus – at $4.00 to raise $12.0 million on Tuesday night (March 5, 2024), the company saidRyde’s stock ended its volatile first day of trading on Wednesday, March 6, 2024,  at $4.00 – unchanged from its IPO price – on the NYSE – American Exchange on volume of about 2.69 million shares. Ryde’s stock opened at $3.70, below its IPO price, and then swung into the black – gaining $1.00 to trade at a session high of $5.00. (Editor’s Note: Updates column with RYDE trading activity through the closing bell in its NYSE –  American debut on Wednesday, March 6, 2024)

Maxim Group was the sole book-runner.

Ryde Group, founded in 2014, described itself as “the first carpool app in Singapore” in its pricing announcement. Ryde launched its on-demand carpooling app in 2015 and expanded its services to offer its first ride-hailing service – for Singapore’s taxis – in 2017, the prospectus says. The company launched its on-demand pet-friendly service, RydePET, in February 2018.

Uber’s exit from the Singapore market – Grab acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia operations in March 2018 – paved the way for Ryde to launch its first ride-hailing service, RydeX, in May 2018, the prospectus says.

Competition in Singapore’s crowded ride-hailing market is stiff, as Ryde says in the prospectus. Ryde is not profitable, reporting a net loss of $4.61 million on revenue of $7.81 million for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2023.

Ryde Group has a market cap of about $76.5 million after pricing its IPO at $4.00, the low end of its range.

Ryde’s IPO Road Trip

For Ryde Group, the IPO’s pricing marked a milestone in a trip that began with a confidential SEC filing last May and the filing of its F-1 (prospectus) with the SEC on Aug. 31, 2023. Ryde Group disclosed its IPO terms in an F-1/A filing on Sept. 29, 2023, with plans to offer 2.25 million Class A ordinary shares at $4.00 to $5.00 to raise $10.13 million.

Fast forward to Jan. 18, 2024, when Ryde Group increased the size of its IPO to 3.0 million Class A ordinary shares – adding 750,000 shares to its original size – and kept the price range at $4.00 to $5.00 to raise $13.5 million, if priced at the $4.50 mid-point.

Ryde Group, a Cayman Islands-incorporated holding company, offered the Class A shares in the IPO – and not the underlying business, the prospectus says.

Ryde’s business includes a Quick Delivery package service, available on the app as RydeSEND. Its mobility business consists of two types of service –  carpooling under the RydePOOL service in its mobile app – and ride-hailing services under seven services in its mobile app – RydeX, RydeXL, RydeLUXE, RydeFLASH, RydePET, RydeHIRE and RideTAXI, according to the prospectus.

Singapore-based Ryde’s goal is to become a “super mobility app” providing access to multiple mobility tools that “function seamlessly out of a single app, offering ultimate convenience and reliability for our customers,” the prospectus says,

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

 

The IPO Buzz: Lucas GC Limited (LGCL) Prices Upsized IPO at $4.00 – Low End

Lucas GC Limited (LGCL), a profitable Chinese job recruitment platform for HR professionals, is the first IPO priced in March 2024. Lucas upsized its IPO at pricing – to 1.5 million shares – up from 1.25 million in the prospectus – and priced the IPO at $4.00 – the low end of its $4.00-to-$6.00 range – to raise $6.0 million on Monday night, March 4, 2024.  (Editor’s Note: Updates column with Lucas stock’s volatile first day of trading)

For Lucas shares, the first day of NASDAQ trading was a swing from a strong opening gain to a sharp slide at the close:

* Lucas opened at $5.00 – up $1.00 for a 25 percent gain from the IPO price – at 11:10 a.m. EST today – Tuesday, March 5, 2024 – on the NASDAQ. Volume on the opening trade was 96,549 shares, according to NASDAQ.

* Lucas closed at $3.61 – down 39 cents for a 9.75 percent drop from the IPO price – to end its NASDAQ debut as a broken deal on volume of about 1.42 million shares. The stock broke issue price at about 1:14 p.m. EST, recovered by about 1:50 p.m. EST and held above its $4.00 IPO price until late in the session.

Joseph Gunnar & Co. was the sole book-runner.

The Lucas IPO’s size is small, but the company is not a small-cap entity.  Lucas GC Limited had a market cap (valuation) of about $396.6 million, assuming mid-point pricing of its range, according to the prospectus.

The Cayman Islands-incorporated holding company offered the stock in the IPO, and not the underlying recruitment business, the SEC filings show.

Serving China’s Professional Job Hunters

Lucas GC Limited targets HR professionals and professional job seekers in China with its AI-driven Platform-as-a-Service, the prospectus says. The company uses artificial intelligence (AI) as well as data analytics and blockchain technologies to serve its core clientele of human resources (HR) professionals in China, according to its SEC filings.

The Beijing-based company describes itself as “the largest technology-driven online agent-centric human capital management service provider targeting professionals based on Platform-as-a-Service, or PaaS, in China,  in terms of the number of active users in the human resources industry as of June 30, 2022, and total net revenues for the year ended Dec. 31, 2021,” the prospectus says.

As of Dec. 31, 2022, Lucas GC Limited had about 431,220 active registered users on its proprietary platforms, Star Career and Columbus,  the prospectus says. Lucas GC Limited says its platforms’ users “receive customized job recommendations and work as talent scouts to source suitable candidates for our corporate customers through their own trusted private social network, as well as receive training and other value-added services.”

On the way to going public, Lucas GC Limited changed the deal’s size, price range and investment banking team a few times. On Feb. 15, 2024, Lucas GC Limited slashed its IPO’s size by 68.8 percent to 1.25 million shares – down from 3.07 million shares – and cut the price range to $4.00 to $6.00 – down from $6.00 to $7.00 – to raise an estimated $6.25 million, if priced at the mid-point, according to its F-1/A filing. In that same SEC filing, Lucas GC Limited disclosed that it had named Joseph Gunnar & Co. as the sole book-runner, replacing the previous joint book-runners Prime Number Capital and Jones Trading.

The Chinese job-recruitment company filed to go public about a year ago – on Feb. 28, 2023.

Lucas GC Limited is profitable, according to the prospectus. For the 12 months that ended June 30, 2023, Lucas GC Limited reported $9.62 million of net income on $173.71 million of revenue, the prospectus says.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

 

 

The IPO Buzz: Singapore’s RYDE Rolls into March as Market Waits for Reddit

Ride on may be the mantra for the IPO Calendar as March begins. The Ryde Group Ltd. (RYDE Proposed), a Singapore-based carpooling, ride-hailing and package delivery app, plans to price its  micro-cap IPO early this week. RYDE is one of four carry-over deals from last week. The carry-overs represent half of this week’s lineup of eight small-cap IPOs with total estimated proceeds of just $80.2 million.

IPO investors are keeping an eye out for Reddit (RDDT Proposed), the home of r/Wall Street Bets, the social media community that drove the meme stock craze during the pandemic. Reddit filed its long-awaited S-1 a little more than a week after Valentine’s Day. The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Reddit is considering a valuation (market cap) of about $6 billion to $6.5 billion – with a price range of $31 to $34, according to people familiar with the situation. The projected valuation, The WSJ noted, is down sharply from an estimate of $10 billion in August 2021. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are leading the joint book-runners’ team, which includes five more investment banks – J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities and MUFG.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225  rose  above the 40,000 mark – a psychological milestone – for the first time on Monday, Bloomberg noted.

In China, the premier’s annual briefing has been eliminated for the first time since 1993, Reuters reported.

Ride App in Singapore

Back on this week’s IPO runway: Ryde Group Ltd. is circling Tuesday morning, March 5, 2024, as its expected trade date on the NYSE – American Exchange, according to the word on the Street. Maxim Group is the sole book-runner for this micro-cap IPO. The deal consists of  just 3.0 million shares at a price range of $4.00 to $5.00 to raise $13.5 million, if priced at the $4.50 mid-point, according to the prospectus. Ryde Group’s market cap is estimated at $86.04 million.

Ryde Group, Ltd., founded in 2014, is unprofitable, according to financial statements in the prospectus. The company aims to become a “super mobility app” providing access to multiple mobility tools that “function seamlessly out of a single app, offering ultimate convenience and reliability for our customers,” the prospectus says.

For Ryde Group, the business consists of two categories:

  • Mobility services in two areas – Its carpooling service is known as RydePOOL, while its ride-hailing services include RydeX, RydeXL, RydeLUXE, RydeFLASH, RydePET, RydeHIRE and RydeTAXI, the prospectus says.
  • Quick Commerce services – The company’s package delivery booking service is known as RydeSEND.

Job Platform in China

From Beijing, Lucas GC Limited (LGCL Proposed) is an ultra-sliver deal on tap. The IPO consists of just 1.25 million shares at a price range of $4.00 to $6.00 to raise $6.25 million, if priced at the  $5.00 mid-point. Lucas GC Limited is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) company that caters to HR professionals, the prospectus says. The company reported a net profit for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2023, according to financial statements in the prospectus.

Joseph Gunnar is the sole book-runner of Lucas GC Limited’s IPO, which is a NASDAQ listing.

Lucas GC Limited’s IPO is tiny, but this is not a micro-cap deal. Lucas GC Limited has a valuation or a market cap estimated at $396.57 million, according to the prospectus. Lucas GC Limited filed to go public about a year ago.

Solar Power from Down Under

SolarJuice Co. Ltd. (SJA Proposed) is a familiar name returning to the IPO Calendar this week, but it’s not a carry-over from last week’s roster. The deal is likely to price on Thursday night, March 7, 2024, to trade Friday, March 8, 2024, on the NASDAQ.

The Australian company’s U.S. unit, SJ America, installs solar energy systems, energy storage solutions and roofing in California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Texas, the prospectus says. SolarJuice also has a wholesale PV (photovoltaic) and solar energy unit called SJ Australia, along with a U.S. unit called SJ Technology, which produces  and sells solar PV modules in the United States.

Maxim Group and Roth Capital Partners are the joint book-runners of the SolarJuice IPO. The deal’s size: 3.75 million shares at a price range of $4.00 to $6.00 to raise $18.75 million, according to an F-1/A filing in February.

From East to West

Rounding out this week’s IPO Calendar are five more deals. These are small IPOs whose corporate headquarters follow the sun from the East – Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan – to the West –  the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York:

  • Two new names – Intelligent Group Limited (INTJ proposed), a Hong Kong-based financial public relations (PR) firm, a $9 million IPO on the NASDAQ, from sole book-runner WestPark Capital, and Trident Digital Tech Holdings (TDTH proposed), a Singapore-based digital tech company serving small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a $10.8 million IPO on the NASDAQ, from sole book-runner Eddid Securities USA, and
  • Three carry-over names – Amphitrite Digital (AMDI proposed), an unprofitable U.S. Virgin Islands-based charter sailing company aiming to raise about $6.0 million to $7.0 million in an IPO listed on the NYSE – American Exchange, sole book-runner Kingswood; Metros Development Co. Ltd. (MTRS Proposed), a profitable Tokyo-based real estate company that buys underdeveloped properties and resells them to real estate developers, planning to raise $6.4 million in its NASDAQ-listed IPO, joint book-runners Boustead Securities and EF Hutton, and NYIAX (NYX Proposed), an unprofitable advertising tech exchange developed under a patent jointly held by NYIAX and a NASDAQ subsidiary, planning to raise $8.43 million, joint book-runners WestPark Capital and EF Hutton.

Stay tuned.

 

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

The IPO Buzz: SolarMax Technology (SMXT) Scores a Moonshot in its NASDAQ Debut

SolarMax Technology (SMXT) priced its small-cap IPO at $4.00 and sold 4.5 million shares – the terms in the prospectus – and raised $18.0 million, Wall Street sources confirmed today (Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024). Shares of SolarMax Technology scored a moonshot at around 1:50 p.m. EST today – jumping to $8.38 – up 109.5 percent from their IPO price – on NASDAQ volume of more than 1.42 million shares. Making the moonshot even sweeter was SolarMax Technology’s rocky start: The stock slipped to open on the NASDAQ at $3.50 – down 50 cents – at about 12:52 p.m. EST today. Within a few minutes, though, SolarMax shares reversed course to rise to $4.40 – and kept heading higher. 

SolarMax Technology’s stock closed today at $8.00 – double its IPO price on its first day of NASDAQ trading.

Kingswood was the sole manager of this small-cap IPO.

The company, based in Riverside, California, filed to go public in July 2022. SolarMax Technology cut its IPO’s size in July 2023 to 4.0 million shares – down from 7.5 million – and kept the IPO price at $4.00, SEC filings show. This was the California solar company’s second attempt to go public.

SolarMax Technology, an integrated solar energy company, was founded in 2008 to conduct business in the United States, the prospectus says. After two acquisitions in 2015, SolarMax Technology began its operations in China.

In the United States, SolarMax Technology sells and installs photovoltaic and battery backup systems for residential and commercial customers, the prospectus says. The company also sells LED systems and services to government and commercial users.

Down on the Solar Farm in China

SolarMax Technology’s China operations consist mostly of identifying and procuring solar farm projects for resale to third parties.

The California solar energy company is not profitable, according to the prospectus.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

 

The IPO Buzz: Reddit’s Long-Awaited IPO Filing Puts AI & Ads on Center Stage

Finally: Reddit Inc. (RDDT Proposed) pulled back the curtain to reveal its plans for going public with its S-1 filing on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 22, 2024). The San Francisco-based social media company, whose r/Wall Street Bets subreddit drove the “meme stock” madness during the pandemic, did not disclose terms for its IPO. Reddit, founded in 2005, is selling itself on the golden twin pillars of AI and ads. (More on that in a moment.)

This is the first big tech IPO of the year – and it’s a New York Stock Exchange listing – a coup for the Big Board in its rivalry with the tech-centric NASDAQ. Reddit will set its IPO terms in a later filing. The deal is likely to launch in March.

The placeholder figure is $100 million. But Wall Street pros expect that the IPO will raise about five to seven times that – and give Reddit a valuation of at least $5 billion. That market cap would be roughly half of Reddit’s valuation of over $10 billion in August 2021 after a private fund-raising round led by Fidelity Management & Research, according to Pitchbook. To date, Reddit has raised about $1.38 billion, according to Bloomberg. Reddit filed confidential IPO documents with the SEC on Dec. 16, 2021.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities and MUFG are the joint book-runners.

AI and Ad Dollars

AI and Reddit are symbiotic – as the news this week and the S-1 filing indicate.

Reddit reached a $60 million-a-year deal with Google to make Reddit’s “content available for training the search engine giant’s artificial intelligence models, three people familiar with the matter said,” Reuters reported on Wednesday.

“The deal underscores how Reddit, which is preparing for a high-profile stock market launch, is seeking to generate new revenue amid fierce competition for advertising dollars from the likes of TikTok and Meta Platform’s (META) Facebook,” Reuters reported.

And who is among those who will benefit the most from Reddit’s IPO?

Sam Altman, for one. Altman, the founder and CEO of OpenAI, the home of ChatGPT, “has invested at least $60 million in Reddit shares,” CNBC reported.

Altman, a former Reddit board member, holds a pre-IPO stake of 9.2 percent of the voting power of Reddit’s outstanding stock, the prospectus says.

Reddit sees Altman’s ChatGPT as a competitor, the prospectus says.

Advertising is Reddit’s “first business,” the company says in the S-1 filing.

But Reddit has never turned a profit. The company has a history of net losses since its inception, according to the S-1.

For the year 2023, Reddit reported a net loss of $90.8 million on revenue of $804.0 million, according to the company’s S-1 filing. In 2022, Reddit’s net loss was $158.6 million on revenue of $666.7 million.

With 73.1 million daily average users (DAU), Reddit offers advertisers an “unduplicated, authentic and attentive audience in an attractive demographic,” the prospectus says. Based on Comscore data, 41 percent of that audience is between the ages of 18 and 34; 50 percent is male, and 64 percent has a household income of $75,000 or more. And here’s a golden fact: Large segments of this group were not active on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), the prospectus says

VCs and Karma

Reddit’s IPO “could be 2024’s first major test of the market for a technology startup backed by venture capital,” Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

This may possibly be the first time that “karma” has appeared in an IPO filing.

Reddit plans to reserve shares in the IPO for its 75,000 most prolific users through a directed share program, The Wall Street Journal reported two days ago.

“User contributions will be measured in karma (a user’s reputation score that reflects their community contributions),” the prospectus says.

Some of the reaction to that news on r/Wall Street Bets was scathing.

Born In A Dorm

If Reddit were a person, it would be old enough to vote. The 18-year-old social messaging company was founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in their University of Virginia dorm room. Huffman is Reddit’s CEO. Ohanian may be better known to some as the husband of tennis legend Serena Williams.

Conde Nast Publications, the home of Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines, bought Reddit in 2006. The same year, Reddit hosted its first AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) event. Fast forward to 2012, when President Barack Obama did an AMA, according to a Reddit timeline in the prospectus.

Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc., Conde Nast’s parent company, spun off Reddit in 2011.

Reddit seems a little bit self-conscious – for a social media company – about its lack of profitability during its 18 years in business so far. The company attempts to explain the red ink on its bottom line in some well-chosen words in the “Risk Factors” section of the prospectus.

“We did not begin meaningful monetization efforts at Reddit until 2018, and we are currently exploring new strategies for monetization,” the prospectus says.

Stay tuned.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

 

The IPO Buzz: AI-Focused Astera Labs Files $100 Million-Plus IPO

AI-focused Astera Labs, Inc. gave Wall Street a welcome wake-up call today – Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024 – with the unveiling of its plans to go public. The chip connectivity products, software and platform developer’s IPO is estimated at a placeholder figure of $100 million. Some on the Street believe that Astera Labs’ IPO could raise five times that or so. Astera Labs’ S-1 filing (prospectus) is dated Feb. 20, 2024. But the SEC did not make the filing available until today. The Astera Labs filing leaves a lot of items blank: It does not include a proposed stock symbol for the IPO, which is a NASDAQ listing, and it does not disclose the IPO’s terms.

Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are the joint lead book-runners. Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities, Evercore ISI and Jefferies make up the rest of the joint book-running team.

The Santa Clara, California-based company, founded in 2017, says in the prospectus:

Our mission is to innovate, design, and deliver semiconductor-based connectivity solutions that are purpose-built to unleash the full potential of cloud and AI infrastructure.

“Building on years of experience with a singular focus on addressing connectivity challenges in data-centric systems, we have developed and deployed our leading Intelligent Connectivity Platform built from the ground up for cloud and AI infrastructure. Our Intelligent Connectivity Platform comprises:

“-Semiconductor-based, high-speed, mixed-signal connectivity products that integrate a matrix of microcontrollers and sensors; and

“-COSMOS, our software suite which is embedded in our connectivity products and integrated into our customers’ systems.”  

Astera Labs says that its Intelligent Connectivity Platform gives its customers “the ability to deploy and operate high-performance cloud and AI infrastructure at scale, addressing an increasingly diverse set of requirements. We provide our connectivity products in various form factors, including ICs, boards, and modules.”

From the prospectus, there’s more: “AI touches many aspects of our daily lives today, from vision processing for autonomous vehicles to speech recognition systems for chatbots. According to IDC, by 2025, the Global 2000 organizations will allocate over 40% of their core IT spend to AI-related initiatives, leading to a double-digit increase in the rate of product and process innovations. The shift towards the cloud from on-premise computing is rapidly accelerating due to increasing demand for compute-intensive AI workloads that are truly optimized when deployed at cloud scale.”

Astera Labs is not profitable. For the year ended 2023, Astera Labs reported a net loss of $26.3 million on revenue of $115.8 million, according to financial statements in the prospectus.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

 

The IPO Buzz: Wetouch Prices Leaner NASDAQ Uplisting at $5.00 – Low End

Wetouch Technology (WETH) cut the size of its public offering/NASDAQ uplisting to 2.16 million shares – down from 3.0 million shares in the prospectus – and priced the deal at $5.00 – the low end of its $5.00-to-$7.00 range – to raise $10.8 million on Tuesday night (Feb. 20, 2024). The company trimmed the deal’s size last week to 3.0 million shares – down from 4.0 million shares – at the $5.00-to-$7.00 price range – according to an S-1/A filing on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024. On that day – Tuesday, Feb. 13th – the U.S. stock market sold off sharply following the release of hotter-than-expected January inflation data. The hot take on January CPI dashed investors’ hopes that the Fed would start cutting interest rates in March.  After the release of the January CPI data, Reuters reported that financial markets “pushed back their interest rate-cut expectations to June from May.”

Shares of Wetouch Technology Inc. are expected to start trading today – Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024 – on the NASDAQ. This is an uplisting of the company’s stock from the OTCQB Market. A 1-for-20 reverse stock split became effective on Sept. 12, 2023, according to the prospectus. Wetouch shares closed on the OTCQB on Feb. 9, 2024, at $5.45, the prospectus says. On Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, Wetouch shares closed at $7.50 on the OTCQB.

WestPark Capital, Craft Capital, R.F. Lafferty & Co. and Orientert served as the joint book-runners of Wetouch Technology’s public offering, which was conducted in connection with its NASDAQ uplisting.

Two Deals Priced Tuesday Night

Wetouch Technology’s NASDAQ uplisting was one of two deals priced on Tuesday night, Feb. 20, 2024, during this holiday-shortened work week. A SPAC IPO – DT Cloud Acquisition Corp. (DYCQU) – was also priced Tuesday night, in sync with the terms in its prospectus: 6.0 million units at $10.00 each to raise $60.0 million. The U.S. stock market was closed Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, for Presidents Day, a federal holiday.

Based on the downsized terms in the pricing of the company’s NASDAQ uplisting deal, Wetouch Technology has a market cap of $59.46 million.

Big Touchscreens from China

Wetouch Technology is a profitable Nevada-incorporated holding company whose subsidiary in Mainland China manufactures and distributes large-format touchscreens.

Wetouch Technology’s touchscreens are used in the financial, automotive, POS (point-of-sale), gaming, lottery, medical and other specialized industries. The company, based in Meishan in the province of Sichuan, China, sells its touchscreens in the People’s Republic of China and internationally.

The parent company is profitable. Wetouch Technology reported net income of $10.2 million on revenue of $39.8 million for the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, 2023, according to the prospectus.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com )

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.