Two companies that were set to go public this month, the digital lender Upstart and the e-commerce company Wish, have priced their IPOs and raised huge sums from investors on the public markets. 

Upstart priced its shares at $20 apiece, selling around 12 million shares for a total of $240 million, of which $180 million went to Upstart while the remaining $60 million went to existing shareholders who sold shares in the company’s IPO.

Wish priced its shares at $24 apiece, selling 46 million shares for a total of $1.1 billion. In the company’s case, its shares slid from $24 to $22.75 at market debut, hinting at bland investor interest. 

Upstart’s IPO placed its market cap at $1.45 billion while Wish’s market debut placed its market cap at over $14 billion. Both companies’ market debuts didn’t result in pops, in contrast with the recent market debuts of two other tech companies, Airbnb and DoorDash, that saw their shares soar high. 

Upstart is a digital lending service that connects its users to loans from partner banks and financial institutions. The company posted roughly $147 million in revenue and a net income of $4.6 million in the first nine months of this year.

Wish is an e-commerce company focused on cheap goods sourced from low-cost countries like China and Vietnam. It posted $1.75 billion in revenue and a net loss of $176 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2020.

The successful IPOs of Upstart and Wish comes after two companies that were set to go public this month, the ‘buy now, pay later’ service Affirm and the gaming company Roblox, postponed their IPOs till next year to make pricing adjustments.

Photo: Upstart CEO Dave Girouard by jdlasica is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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