Four recent IPOs that had a blockbuster debut

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Summary

• IPOs are a significant step for a company as it gets the opportunity to raise capital for further business expansion.
• Recently, investors witnessed multiple successful IPOs, making their presence felt strongly in the market.

The IPO market has been heating up recently with majority of the stocks racking up blockbuster gains upon raising the capital. For any company, the initial public offering (IPO) is a crucial step as it ushers in an opportunity to raise a lump sum of amount to grow and expand.

Let's have a look at four recent IPOs which entered the market with elan.

Roblox IPO exceeds expectations

Online gaming provider Roblox began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on 10 March 2021, under the ticker name RBLX and did better than expectations. RBLX settled the day's trade at USD 69.50 on 10^th March, up 54.44% from the previous day. On 09 March 2021, the New York Stock Exchange had set Roblox's price as USD 45 a share.

Roblox's initial public offer was a direct listing, implying no new shares were created or sold, and neither any capital was raised through the IPO. The investors can sell the already existing shares depending on demand. 

The Company offers a digital gaming platform where it lets the users design and develop their own games besides allowing them to play games designed and created by other users. Currently, nearly 36.2 million users interact and play daily on the platform.

The human co-experience platform comprises Roblox cloud, Roblox Studio and Roblox client. The Cloud part facilitates infrastructure and services to power the platform, whereas the Studio consists of the toolset for creators and developers to create, publish and play in a 3D environment, and the Client is to access other content.

Kuaishou soared 200% on listing

Founded in 2011 by Cheng Yixiao and Su Hua, Kuaishou Technology facilitates a video-sharing app. Both the founders are former Google employees.

On 5 February 2021, the company made a smashing debut on the Honk Kong stock exchange. The shares were priced at HKD 115, and the IPO raised HKD 41.3 billion (USD 5.32 billion). The IPO did exceptionally well on the first day of trading, with the shares rocketing nearly 200%.

The company created a mobile app named GIF Kuaishou that allows users to create GIFs (graphics interchange format). GIFs are animated images. The company launched its short video and social media platform in 2013 and livestreaming in 2016.

The Kuaishou app at present has 769 million monthly active users.

To know more, read here: All You Need To Know About Kuaishou That Made a Splash with $5bn IPO

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Affirm created waves in the BNPL space, shares zoomed 100% 

On 13 January 2021, the US-based BNPL company Affirm started trading and ended nearly 100% higher on the first day of listing on Nasdaq.

Affirm set its IPO offering price at $49 early on 13 January, offering 24.6 million shares and raising proceeds of $1.2 billion. Yahoo! Finance data shows roughly 24.9 million shares were traded on the first day.

Founded in 2012 by Max Levchin, the company has over 6.5K merchants and more than 6.2 million customers. Max Levchin is the company's Chief Executive Officer who also co-founded the payment giant company PayPal. The company is one of the pioneers in the 'buy now pay later' space which is growing fiercely ever since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read here to know about Affirm IPO: Affirm off to a flying start on NASDAQ, ASX-listed BNPL players have a field day

Bumble Inc, a women-centric dating app enters the market with a bang

Bumble Inc went public on 11 February 2021. The company, which runs Bumble, the female-centric dating app, settled the trading on the first day with a 63.5% gain on the Nasdaq. The app was launched in 2014, and it flourished during the pandemic restrictions. The app believes in empowering women in the dating process by giving them the chance to make the first move in dating with the partner of their choice.

Read here to know more on the company's IPO: Bumble Explodes on the Market with Bumper IPO