Haters gonna hate, IPOs gonna pop.
That’s the story today as richly valued DoorDash and C3.ai, two American technology unicorns, saw their values skyrocket after they began trading today.
DoorDash shares are up just under 83% to $186.51. The company priced its IPO at $102 per share last night, ahead of its raised IPO range of $90 to $95 per share.
And as I write to you, shares of C3.ai are up an even sharper 151% to $105.58, after pricing at $42 per share earlier today. The company had raised its IPO range from $31 to $34 per share to $36 to $38 per share.
It appears that public investors are, again, more exuberant about the growth and profit prospects of select late-stage unicorns than private investors. Earlier this year DoorDash raised $400 million at a valuation of around $16 billion, for example.
Today on a non-diluted basis, the company is worth around $59 billion. That figure rises sharply if you include shares that could be created from the exercise of options and other forms of compensation.
TechCrunch is speaking with DoorDash’s CFO and the CEO of C3.ai later today.
For a passel of companies coming next, the day’s tidings are more than welcome. Airbnb may be able to secure a higher per-share price when it prices later today. And with Affirm and Upstart and Roblox and Wish quickly approaching their final IPO prices, the explosive early trading of today’s debuts could provide them with a boost as well.
Why are the two companies up so sharply? Your guess is as good as mine, but factors could include — as noted this morning — a boom in retail trading and a possibly constrained float, among other factors. Regardless, for both firms it has been a dream week, first raising more money than they likely anticipated, then receiving a rapturous welcome from public investors.
How should we understand the new valuations? It’s too soon to fully grok what is going on. More trading with more shares in motion will help clarify the two companies’ more stable value.
Until then we’re going to sit back and watch Yahoo Finance.
