Asana, a corporate software maker started by a Facebook co-founder, filed to go public via a direct listing, revealing a net loss that has more than doubled year over year.
The San Francisco-based startup filed paperwork for the listing Monday. Unlike a traditional initial public offering, no new money is raised in a direct listing, which usually sees existing investors start selling their stock as soon as trading starts with no lockup period.
Asana reported a net loss of $36 million in the three months through April on revenue of $48 million. That compared to a loss of $15 million on revenue of $28 million in the same period a year earlier.
The company, which makes workplace productivity software, was started by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.
Asana has recently been trading on the secondary market at a value of around $5 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg this month. The secondary market valuation is an important element of a company’s price discovery process in a direct listing, since no new shares are sold.
Asana plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The NYSE, a subsidiary of InterContinentalExchange Inc., has been the venue for both of the high-profile direct listings so far, Spotify Technology SA and Slack Technologies Inc.
While companies planning direct listings don’t hire banks in traditional underwriting roles, Asana is working with Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. As financial advisers.
