IPOs Coming Soon: What Does 2021 Have in Store for the IPO Market?

Looking for fresh IPO insights? Check out our Upcoming IPOs 2022 blog post.

2020 saw many initial public offerings (IPOs) come to market including DoorDash (DASH), Airbnb (ABNB), Asana (ASAN), Snowflake (SNOW) and Palantir (PLTR).

And so far that momentum has continued into 2021. We have already seen some big names come to market this year including Coinbase, Poshmark, Deliveroo, and more.

The new IPOs that hit markets already in 2021 and those still expected are keeping Wall Street busy. Similarweb’s alternative data will be key in deciding which ones to participate in.

Key Takeaways:

• The number of websites with BNPL solutions Klarna and Afterpay installed saw 65.5% YoY growth in 2Q21
• Robinhood: Monthly unique visitors (MUVs) to robinhood.com are growing rapidly
• Instacart: instacart.com experienced 96% year-over-year (YoY) growth in (MUVs), and the Canadian site is growing too
• 23andme: In almost a year, the number of site visits globally has increased by 78%
• monday.com: Monthly visits to monday.com saw 63.7% YoY growth in 1Q21
• Petco.com receives significantly fewer visits than chewy.com but is growing at a faster rate

IPOs 2021: IPOs coming soon in 2021

Below we delve into insights on the online health and performance of some of the most exciting upcoming IPOs expected to come to market in 2021, including Klarna, Robinhood, and Instacart.

Klarna IPO

Expected IPO date:2021.

Company Description: Fintech company specializing in buy now pay later (BNPL), headquartered in Sweden

There has been lots of speculation around a potential IPO from Klarna, which according to TechCrunch is the highest valued private fintech in Europe. The Swedish buy now pay later (BNPL) company is live in over 20 countries, and in May 2021 reported 90 million global active users, and 2 million transactions a day.

This could be an exciting IPO to get involved in.

Klarna operates in an expanding market, signaling high growth potential. This is a great signal ahead of a potential upcoming IPO.

The number of websites globally with either Klarna or Afterpay installed, is increasing. In 2Q21 this growth represented 16.8% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), and 65.5% year-over-year (YoY).

The market is strong, but can Klarna keep up with the market?

Robinhood IPO

Expected IPO date: Q3 2021
Company Description: Commission-free investment platform for retail investors (regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission)

Targeting millennials, Robinhood is on a mission to “democratize finance for all.” Following a confidential initial public offering (IPO) filing in March, Robinhood, the commission-free investing platform, publicly filed for its IPO with the SEC on July 1. The company will be listed on NASDAQ under the ticker HOOD and expects to raise $100 million in its debut onto the public markets. According to the New York Post, Robinhood has hired Goldman Sachs as the underwriters for its IPO.

This is a highly anticipated IPO, and we can see why.

Monthly unique visitors to robinhood.com in the U.S. are growing at a tremendous rate, with YoY growth in 2Q21 at over 100%.

Download the full Robinhood analysis

Instacart IPO

IPO date expectation: 2021
Company Description: Grocery delivery and pick up service in the U.S. and Canada

Instacart is one of those businesses that has benefited from COVID-19, as the public attempted to avoid supermarkets and other busy public areas, especially during the height of the pandemic. The company raised $200 million in October 2020 bringing total funding to $2.4 billion and valuing the company at $30 billion. So what’s going on online?

The number of monthly unique visitors to instacart.com, a proxy for monthly active users of the service, in the U.S. peaked in May but continues to be on the rise. In 3Q20, the site experienced 96% YoY growth in unique visitors.

And the company’s presence in Canada is also ramping up, with the number of monthly unique visitors to instacart.ca experiencing 197% YoY growth in 3Q20.

To get more details about the company’s user engagement and brand strength, read the full analysis

23andMe SPAC

SPAC date expectation: 2Q21
Company Description: Genetics testing company founded by American entrepreneur Anne Wojcicki

From taste preferences and health risks to ancestry links, 23andMe, provides direct to customer (DTC) home genetic testing kits that give customers insights into their genetics. All customers need to do is spit into a tube. The company is also on a mission to disrupt what it believes to be a dysfunctional healthcare system, and provide a personal approach to healthcare. And finally the company has partnered with Glaxosmithkline (GSK) to use its DNA database for drug discovery.

23andMe is entering the public markets via a merger with blank-check firm VG Acquisition Corp (NYSE:VGAC.U), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) founded by Virgin Group’s Sir Richard Branson. Once the 23andME SPAC goes ahead, the newly formed public entity will trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the ticker symbol ME.

The deal that will take 23andMe public values the merged entity at $3.5 billion according to CNBC.

So what does the alternative web data have to say about 23andMe?

Traffic to 23andme.com has been experiencing an upward trend since April 2020. In almost a year, the number of site visits globally has increased by 78% (from 5.5 million to 9.8 million).

For more on 23andMe including the growth in number of paying customers, download the full analysis

monday.com IPO

IPO date expectation: 2Q21
Company Description: Project management software company, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel

In May monday.com officially filed for its initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ stock exchange, under the ticker MNDY. The company is yet to report a profit, but did report impressive total revenue for 2020 of $161 million.

Let’s see what the data has to say about the company.

Monthly visits to monday.com are experiencing an upward trend, showing the platform’s increased popularity. February saw the highest number of monthly visits to the site to date, at 20.1 million, and YoY growth in 1Q21 was 63.7%.

The positive trajectory for site visits is encouraging, but how does monday.com fair against its competition?

Petco IPO

IPO date expectation: Q1 2021

Company Description:Pet and pet food supply retailer and service provider

Pet adoption in the US has soared this year, thanks to the pandemic, and with it so has the demand and spending in pet supplies. So the company has decided that 2021 is the year it will re-enter the public markets. Petco filed its S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 3 2020.

There is some uncertainty from investors over this IPO, so we have used alternative data to gain insight into the digital performance of the company.

Monthly visits to petco.com in the U.S. are significantly lower than competitor chewy.com, however YoY growth is higher for petcom.com. In Q3 20 petco.com experienced 104% YoY growth in monthly visits compared to chewy.com that experienced 49% YoY growth.

For more on Petco, including visibility into the trend in number of converted visits to the site, download the full analysis.

Investing in IPOs

IPOs are often highly anticipated and talked about with excitement before they actually list. An IPO is only confirmed once the pricing and date have been finalized and the company has announced which exchange it will be listed on (Nasdaq, NYSE etc.).

Some of the most anticipated IPOs in the past few years include:

• Slack – went public in April 2019 at $38.5 per share
• Uber – went public in May 2019 at $42 per share
• Peloton – went public in September 2019 at $26-$29 per share

Asana (ticker ASAN) and DoorDash (ticker DASH), that both listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) were just two of the highly anticipated IPOs that came to the stock market at the latter end of 2020.

Why alternative data is useful for IPOs

Alternative data refers to data used by investors that are not within their traditional data sources (public company disclosures, sell-side research etc). It is the answer investors are looking for to address the pain points of using only traditional sources for investment decisions, and when it comes to upcoming IPOs, where there can be such limited information about the company, alternative datasets are even more valuable. For more on using alternative data in your investment process download our guide on key digital metrics per sector.

Breadth of coverage

Similarweb offers visibility into every single company that is using the internet to conduct business. From tech companies all the way through to consumer staples and telecoms if a company is connected to the internet, Similarweb will have data on it. The breadth of our data allows us to provide a holistic view of any company’s digital activity.

Similarweb’s unique methodology

This dataset is proprietary and unique to Similarweb. The data is derived from an unrivaled blend of digital signals sourced from external partners, public data sources, anonymous behavioral data, and first-party direct measurement. This unique, multidimensional approach to hundreds of diverse data sources and types is a core strength and differentiator for Similarweb’s offering; and we are committed to continuously supporting and refining this data.

The growing connectivity of our world is opening up new opportunities for investors. Similarweb’s digital data is a new way to understand online changes on a near real-time basis, allowing investment managers to extract actionable insights on companies and shifting trends across markets and industries.

Conclusion

So as you can see, using alternative data provides invaluable visibility into the online health and performance of any company with an online presence, and is a must when deciding whether to participate in upcoming IPOs.