Quhuo, a China-based staffing services provider backed by internet company Baidu and telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, has floated on the Nasdaq Global Market in a $33m initial public offering.
The company priced 3.3 million shares at $10.00 each, in the middle of the $9 to $11 range it had set. Its shares peaked at $20.90 on their first day of trading on Friday and closed at $11.59 yesterday giving it a valuation of about $600m.
Founded in 2012, Quhuo provides on-demand staff and operational support for mobile services such as ride hailing, food and grocery delivery platforms across 73 Chinese cities. It cut losses from $13.4m to $1.9m in 2019 while increasing revenue 72% to $295m.
The IPO proceeds will support the expansion of Quhuo’s services across various sectors, in addition to strengthening marketing and the company’s technology resources.
The company raised an eight-figure dollar amount in a 2014 series B round and added $10m in a series C led by SoftBank’s SBCVC unit and private equity firm ClearVue Partners wo years later.
SBCVC bought $1.6m of shares in the offering, meaning its share was diluted only slightly, from 11.7% to 11.2%. Baidu’s share was cut from 12.2% to 11.5% while ClearVue came out with a 7% stake.
Underwriters Roth Capital Partners, Valuable Capital and Tiger Brokers have the 30-day option to buy up to 488,000 more shares in the IPO, which would potentially lift it to almost $47.9m in size.
