Via’s Bumpy Debut Shows There’s Still Market Unease for Lossmakers

Via Transportation VIA, a software provider for public transit systems, opened trading at $44 per share on the NYSE on Sept. 13, below its IPO price of $46. Despite closing the day at $50 a share, the bumpy start suggests retail investors’ exuberance for new tech IPOs may not extend to every company.

The shares, mostly from Via with a third from existing shareholders, sold for a total of $492 million. This brought Via’s fully diluted market cap to $3.7 billion. This is a small bump from Via’s last private round, a Series G in 2023, which valued the company at $3.5 billion.

Via’s cap table as a private startup included Exor, 83North, and Pitango Venture Capital. Other selling shareholders included Hearst Communications, Planven, and Energy Impact Partners, according to a recent IPO filing.

Via, which also owns consumer transport app maker Citymapper, joins Klarna, Figure, Gemini, and Netskope in the post-Labor Day IPO rush, energizing the private markets. But its debut performance suggests the public markets’ appetite is more moderate for issuers not riding the buzz around technologies like artificial intelligence and the blockchain.

Companies typically aim for an IPO price to jump once a stock begins trading—and hopefully throughout the rest of the day and beyond—to maintain positive morale for employees and shareholders.

Via’s revenue has been growing steadily at around 30% year over year, but it has yet to log full-year profitability. The firm had a $38 million net loss in the first six months of 2025 on $206 million in revenue, per its latest S-1 filing. It had a net loss of $90 million for 2024, shrinking from $116 million in 2023.

Via first attempted to go public in 2021 before withdrawing, citing market uncertainty.