This HighProfile IPO Could Open the Unicorn Floodgates
Cloud communications startup Twilio has set the price in its initial public offering. Twilio said late Wednesday that its shares sold for 15, which means that Twilio had raised 150 million in the offering. The company's shares will start trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol TWLO. Twilio originally planned to set its share price at 12 to 14, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday that cited an unnamed source. The ultimately higher price suggests greater than expected demand for the company's stock. Analysts and investors are closely watching the cloud startup's IPO as a gauge of the current technology market. Many high-profile so-called unicorns, which refers to startups valued at over 1 billion, have chosen to remain private amid a rough market for IPOs. As Fortunes Dan Primack wrote, "If Twilio manages to price and doesn't collapse in the early aftermarket, it could serve as the dam-breaker that other, less courageous unicorns have been waiting for." The startup had raised roughly 240 million in total funding and at the time of its last funding round in July, and was valued at a little over 1 billion. With the upcoming IPO, Twilio will have a market capitalization of 1.2 billion, according the Wall Street Journal. Twilio's application programming interfaces, or APIs, have been a hit with coders who can use them in their apps so that customers can send texts or make phone calls. The startup counts several big-name customers including ride-hailing company Uber, Coca-Cola, and Home Depot. In 2015, Twilio had 166.9 million in total sales, which was an 88 jump from 2014 when it brought in 88.8 million, according to a regulatory filing. It's net loss for 2015 was 35.4 million, which was 32 more than the previous year when its net losses were 26.7 million.