On the heels of Bill.com’s debut, Chicago-based social media software company Sprout Social priced its IPO last night at $ 17 per share, in the middle of its proposed $ 16 to $ 18 per-share range. Selling 8.8 million shares, Sprout raised just under $ 150 million in its debut.
Underwriters have the option to purchase an additional 1.3 million shares if they so choose.
The IPO is a good result for the company’s investors (Lightbank, New Enterprise Associates, Goldman Sachs and Future Fund), but also for Chicago, a growing startup scene that doesn’t often get its due in the public mind.
At $ 17 per share, not including the possible underwriter option, Sprout Social is worth about $ 814 million. That’s just a hair over its final private valuation set during its $ 40.5 million Series D in December of 2018. That particular investment valued Sprout at $ 800.5 million, according to Crunchbase data.
So what?
Sprout’s debut is interesting for a few reasons. First, the company raised just a little over $ 110 million while private, and will generate over $ 100 million in trailing GAAP revenue this year. In effect, Sprout Social used less than $ 110 million to build up over $ 100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) — the firm reached the $ 100 million ARR mark between Q2 and Q3 of 2019. That’s a remarkably efficient result for the unicorn era.
And the company is interesting, as it gives us a look at how investors value slower-growth SaaS companies. As we’ve written, Sprout Social grew by a little over 30% in the first three quarters of 2019. That’s a healthy rate, but not as fast as, say, Bill.com . (Bill.com’s strong market response puts its own growth rate in context.)
Thinking very loosely, Sprout Social closed Q3 2019 with ARR of about $ 105 million. Worth $ 814 million now, we can surmise that Sprout priced at an ARR multiple of about 7.75x. That’s a useful benchmark for private companies that sell software: If you want a higher multiple when you go public, you’ll have to grow a little faster.
All the same, the IPO is a win for Chicago, and a win for the company’s investors. We’ll update this piece later with how the stock performs, once it begins to trade.
