There is a first for everything and for Ibotta, the Denver retail-technology company behind the most popular shopping apps made in Colorado, its first day as a public company Thursday opened at $107 per share, 21.6% higher than the $88 offer price set Wednesday night.
Flanked by friends, family and Ibotta employees, CEO Bryan Leach opened the New York Stock Exchange with the traditional bell ringing, and much applause.
And then Leach went on media duty, talking about the appeal of investing in a company whose retail technology provides consumers cash back and coupons on everyday purchases, as well as handles the back-end technology for similar programs from Walmart, Dollar General and Kroger.
“We’re thrilled, Carl. Couldn’t be happier to be here and recognize this milestone on behalf of the company,” Leach told Carl Quintanilla with CNBC’s Money Movers and went on to share how the half-billion dollars raised will go back into investing in Ibotta’s technology. “Brand managers are looking to be really smart. This is not your grandma’s coupon. They’re looking for a more intelligent way to put that right incentive in front of the right person to create incremental value to grow their market share. The more intelligent you can make that system, the more data you can use to power the system, the more valuable it is to our retail partners.”
The company, founded in Denver in 2012, grew into a popular shopping app that helps consumers get cash-back rebates on everyday purchases. More recently, Ibotta shifted its focus to build a similar back end for big retail partners. That move helped the company reach profitability and decide it was time to go public.
According to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Ibotta’s revenues increased 52% to $320 million in 2023, while net income improved to $38.1 million, compared with the prior year’s net loss of $54.9 million, according to Ibotta’s filings.
On Tuesday, Ibotta had increased the number of shares available to 6.56 million, as existing investors offered nearly 1 million more. On Wednesday evening, the company announced that shares under the ticker symbol IBTA would be offered at $88 each, or higher than the initial estimate of $76 and $84.
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Read moreWhen shares started trading publicly mid-morning Colorado time, the outsized offer leapt to a high of $117 before trending down. At midday, shares were trading around $100 per share.
At the end of the trade day, Ibotta shares closed at $103.25, up 17.3% from the IPO price of $88. That put the company’s market capitalization at $2.81 billion.
Denver-area tech startups and investors are celebrating this milestone for the entrepreneurial community, in which Ibotta has been an active participant for years.
“Big win for the community,” Natty Zola, a venture capitalist at Matchstick Ventures in Boulder, said in an email. “Congrats to them! Hopefully this also generates a ton of new angel investors who can reinvest back into our ecosystem, too.”
Liz Giorgi, an entrepreneur who moved from Minnesota to Denver in 2015 to expand her non-venture-backed business Soona, doesn’t know Leach but appreciates what he’s done for the area. Soona, which provides digital photo and video services for retailers and companies, has raised more than $51 million from venture investors. In doing so, venture-backed businesses must one day pay back their investors. That’s typically done with an IPO or acquisition.
“This IPO is a really big signal that Colorado is still rising as a market for startups to grow, thrive and scale,” Giorgi said in an email. “But on top of that, many of us in the growth stage of startups are really glad to see more IPOs in general, as it may help to get more excitement in the funding market.”