US-based customer engagement technology provider Braze is floating on the Nasdaq Global Select Market today in a $520m initial public offering representing an exit for financial services firm Citi.
The offering involved the company issuing 6.7 million shares priced at $65.00 each, above the $55 to $60 range it had set last week. Venture capital firm Interwest Partners divested a further 1.3 million shares to raise $84.5m and the price values Braze at nearly $5.9bn.
Braze’s software allows businesses to generate and process customer data in real time in order to strengthen the contextual relevance of cross-channel marketing and support wider customer engagement activities.
The company increased its revenue 53% year on year to approximately $104m for the six months ending July 2021, though its net loss more than doubled from $12.4m to $25.8m over the same period.
Meritech Capital Partners, Spark Capital and Cross Creek had supplied $80m in series E funding for Braze in 2018 at an $850m valuation. Its existing backers include Citi subsidiary Citi Ventures, Iconiq Capital, Rally Ventures, Battery Ventures, Ridge Ventures, Blumberg Capital, T5 Capital, Bullpen Capital, InterWest Partners, Icon Venture Partners and Accelerator Ventures.
Citi’s share of the company was under 5% pre-IPO. Its largest investor, Battery Ventures, has a 19.8% stake diluted from 21.4% while Iconiq Capital now has a 15.2% stake, an entity named MCG7 Capital 9.6%, Rally Ventures 5.5%, Meritech 5.7% Blumberg Capital 5.1% and InterWest 3.6%.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Barclays are joint lead book-running managers for the offering while Piper Sandler and William Blair are joint book-running managers and Canaccord Genuity, Cowen, JMP Securities, Needham, Oppenheimer, Raymond James and Loop Capital Markets co-managers.
The underwriters have a 30-day option to acquire an additional 800,000 shares, potentially expanding the IPO to $552m.
