Casper will make its brave, new public market debut today.
The direct-to-consumer mattress startup priced its IPO at the low end of its already reduced range.
Casper cut its IPO share price to $12 to $13 from $17 to $19 on Wednesday, signaling that it’s had a hard time attracting enough demand at the higher levels. This new share price would value the company at roughly $476 million, which is a significant decrease from its private valuation of $1.1 billion. Casper raised a total of nearly $340 million in venture funding from investors including IVP, Lerer Hippeau, Target and New Enterprise Associates.
Casper has dominated marketing over the years, but the prospectus tells us it’s somewhat of a double-edged sword. In its IPO prospectus, we learned that the company has spent $423 million on marketing since 2016. For every $1 it spent on marketing, it brought in $3 in revenue. More than 73% of its gross profit last year went to sales and marketing costs.
Let’s not forget that there’s a higher bar to clear in the public markets, and those investors want to see profitability — or at least signs that there’s some sort of viable path to profitability. Casper is not yet profitable. It generated $358 million in 2018 revenues, and posted $92 million in losses over the same period.
The unicorns who’ve been brave enough to go public have gotten the cold shoulder from public market investors, with Uber, Lyft, and SmileDirectClub trading below their IPO prices. (And of course, we all saw what happened with WeWork.)
Will Casper be the latest over-eager startup to get humbled by the public markets? Or will it surprise us all?
HOUSEKEEPING: I’ll be out of the office tomorrow, so please send deals for inclusion to my colleague Lucinda Shen at [email protected]. See you on Monday!
Polina Marinova
Twitter: @polina_marinova
Email: [email protected]
VENTURE DEALS
- Aiven, a Finland-based startup that combines open source technologies with cloud infrastructure, raised $40 million in Series B funding. IVP led the round, and was joined by investors including Earlybird VC and Lifeline Ventures.
- Landing, a San Francisco-based proptech company that offers renters a membership for flexible, long-term living, raised $30 million in equity and debt funding. Greycroft led the round, and was joined by investors including Maveron and Abstract Ventures.
- HopSkipDrive, a Los Angeles based youth transportation solution for schools and families, raised $22 million in funding. Investors include Cyrus Capital Partners, State Farm Ventures, Upfront Ventures, FirstMark Capital and Greycroft.
- Cherre, a New York-based real estate data and analytics platform, raised $16 million in funding. Intel Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Navitas Capital, Carthona Capital, Zigg Capital, Dreamit Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank.
- Transparent Financial Systems, a Seattle-based startup developing on-demand cryptographic settlement solutions, raised more than $14 million in Series A funding. Investors include Pantera Capital, Square, Inc., FuturePerfect Ventures, IDEO Colab Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and CMT Digital.
- Clear, a Singapore-based provider of a settlement system that uses blockchain to facilitate cross-border B2B trading, raised $13 million in Series A funding . Eight Roads (formerly Fidelity Ventures) led the round, and was joined by investors including the venture subsidiaries of Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hong Kong Telecom and Singtel.
- Lightning Labs, a San Francisco-based Bitcoin payments startup, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Ribbit Capital, RRE, M13, and Slow Ventures.
- Maven Machines, a Pittsburgh, Penn-based provider of fleet management software for commercial transportation, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Allos Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Hearst Ventures, Riverfront Ventures, and Great Oaks Venture Capital.
- Laka, a London-based community-driven insurance technology company, raised $4.7 million in funding. LocalGlobe and Creandum co-led the round.
- Roshi, an Oakland, Calif.-based cannabis inventory management platform, raised $2.4 million in seed funding. Investors include Silverleaf Venture Partners and F7 Ventures.
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
- Advent International and Crosspoint Capital agreed to acquire Forescout Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSCT) in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.9 billion.
- Align Capital Partners acquired UtiliWorks Consulting, a Baton Rouge, La.-based advisory firm that partners with water, electric, and gas utilities and municipalities. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHER DEALS
- Flexera acquired Revulytics, a Waltham, Mass.-based software usage analytics company. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Revulytics had raised approximately $14.5 million in venture funding from investors including Ascent Venture Partners, Core Capital Partners, and Rockford Capital.
PEOPLE
- Madison McIlwain joined Defy Partners as an associate.
- Yellow Wood Partners promoted Tracy Pizzi to partner.
- Rohan Narayan joined One Rock Capital Partners as a partner.
- First Reserve promoted William Brown and Michael Scardigli to managing director, Thomas Amburgey to director, and Patrick McEnery to vice president of Credit & Capital Markets.
- Jerry Lu joined Advancit Capital as an associate.
- Alpine Investors promoted Matt Moore to partner and Daniel Cohen to principal.
