Pinterest, the US-based social media platform backed by e-commerce firm Rakuten, raised $1.43bn today when it floated on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company priced 75 million shares at $19.00 each, above the $15 to $17 range it had set earlier this month, giving it a reported market cap of $12.6bn. The underwriters have 30 days to buy up to 11.3 million more shares, which would boost the size of the initial public offering to $1.64bn.
Founded in 2009, Pinterest runs an online platform with more than 250 million monthly active users where people can post and share images they like with each other. It initially concentrated on building user numbers but has ramped up advertising revenue in recent years.
The offering comes after Pinterest generated almost $756m in revenue in 2018 while more than halving its net loss to $63m. It will use part of the IPO proceeds to repay $275m in debt financing.
Pinterest had raised about $1.25bn in funding, including $150m in a mid-2017 series H round that valued it at $12.3bn. Financial services and investment group Fidelity provided $30m of the capital, participating alongside unnamed additional investors.
Rakuten led the company’s $100m series C round in 2012, investing together with venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) and FirstMark, and unnamed private backers.
Rakuten, BVP, Andreessen Horowitz and FirstMark returned for a $200m series D round led by hedge fund manager Valiant Capital Management in 2013, at a reported $2.5bn valuation. The latter four also took part in a $225m series E led by Fidelity Investments later the same year.
Pinterest raised $200m in series F funding from Fidelity, BVP, Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark, Valiant Capital and SV Angel in 2014 at a $5bn valuation, before the same investors joined Goldman Sachs and Wellington Management for a $553m series G in 2015.
Rakuten owned less than 5% of the company’s shares prior to the offering. Its largest shareholders are BVP (13.1% pre-IPO), FirstMark (9.8%), Andreessen Horowitz (9.6%), Pinterest co-founder Paul Sciarra (9.3%), Fidelity (7.1%) and Valiant (6%).
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Securities and Allen & Company are lead joint book-running managers for the offering.
BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse Securities (USA), Deutsche Bank Securities and RBC Capital Markets are also book-running managers, while Robert W. Baird, UBS Securities and Wells Fargo Securities are co-managers.
