ACV Auctions, a US-based online automotive marketplace backed by telecommunications and internet group SoftBank raised approximately $416m yesterday when it floated on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The company priced more than 16.5 million shares at $25.00 each, above a $20 to $22 price range that had already been lifted from $16 to $20. They closed at $31.25 yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of about $4.8bn.
Founded in 2014, ACV runs an e-commerce platform where traders can buy and sell used vehicles. It made a $41m net loss in 2020 from $208m in revenue.
The offering follows more than $300m in funding, $160m of which came in a series E round co-led by investment and financial services group Fidelity and investment manager Wellington Management Company in late 2019.
Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) and Tribeca Venture Partners also took part in the series E round, having joined Armory Square Ventures and the Australian government’s Future Fund in a $93m series D round in December 2018.
BVP led ACV’s $31m series C round in February the same year, investing alongside SoftBank subsidiary SoftBank NY, Tribeca Venture Partners and Armory Square Ventures. It also led a $15m series B round in 2017 that included undisclosed existing backers.
SoftBank Capital NY had already participated in a $5m series A round for the company in 2016 that was led by Tribeca Venture Partners and backed by Armory Square Ventures and Rand Capital, increasing its overall funding to $7m.
The company is issuing class A shares in the offering, with the remainder of its shareholding consisting of nearly 138 million class B shares. BVP owns the most class B shares, 28.9% of the total, followed by Tribeca Venture Partners (11.9%), SoftBank (7.1%) and Armory Square Ventures (5.7%).
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Citigroup are lead book-running managers for the IPO while BofA Securities and Jefferies are book-running managers and Canaccord Genuity, Guggenheim Securities, JMP Securities, Piper Sandler and Raymond James are co-managers.
The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy about 2.48 million additional shares, which could boost the size of the offering to almost $476m.
