Ibotta's stock soars 27% in trading debut after IPO priced a full $4 above price range

By Ciara Linnane

Digital marketing platform off to a strong start Thursday

The stock of Ibotta, a digital marketing platform backed by Walmart Inc., soared 27% in its trading debut on Thursday, after the deal priced at $88, a full $4 above its proposed price range.

The company allows consumer packaged goods companies to offer promotions to customers through a network of publishers.

It sold a total of 6.56 million shares to raise $577 million at a valuation of $2.7 billion.

The stock (IBTA) is trading on the New York Stock Exchange later Thursday under the ticker "IBTA." Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and BofA Securities were lead underwriters in a team of nine banks working on the deal.

The company has two classes of stock, Class A and Class B, with the latter carrying 20 votes and the former just one. Founder, Chief Executive and President Bryan Leach, and entities associated with him, own about 69.7% of voting rights.

Ibotta had net income of $38.1 million in 2023, after a loss of $54.9 million in 2022. Revenue rose to $320.0 million from $210.7 million.

In a letter from Leach included in the filing documents, he explains that Ibotta came into being when he saw a woman on a plane from Brazil take a picture of her receipts to submit her expenses for reimbursement.

"It made me think about the power of all the data contained on a receipt: detailed information about everything we buy, including the UPC, price, and quantity of every item in the basket, along with the date, time, retailer, and store location of purchase," he wrote.

That led him to consider what technology could do if it could harness that data and transform the way promotions and ads are delivered.

"In those musings lay the kernel of Ibotta ("I-bought-a"), which I hoped might one day help millions of consumers earn rewards for trying new brands, while at the same time reshaping the future of digital marketing," he wrote.

The deal comes at a time when the Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO) is up 9% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

-Ciara Linnane

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04-18-24 1258ET

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