Via files for US IPO on trip to post-Labor Day launch
Via Transportation publicly filed for its NYSE IPO Friday afternoon, providing flexibility to launch the offering after the September 1 Labor Day holiday.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Allen & Co and Wells Fargo are joint bookrunners atop a 12-strong syndicate of banks leading the offering.
The transportation logistics technology provider is selling stock on the deal as are selling shareholders, suggesting on offering size in the range of US$500m, according to IFR calculations.
“The Via team’s passion for helping governments operate more efficiently has only grown over the years,” said Via co-founder and CEO Daniel Ramot in a letter to prospective investors. “It is this passion that drives us to build better products sand deliver better solutions for the extremely important organizations we serve.
“We are excited to share our story with you. We hope you’ll choose to join us on this ride.”
Starting from its home base in New York City, the ride has been “bumpy”, forcing Via to be “creative” and “scrappy”, Ramot concedes.
Yet Via is now inflecting toward profitability. In the first six months of the year, the company narrowed adjusted Ebitda losses to US$17.3m while growing revenue by 26.5% to US$205.8m. It had US$78.2m of cash as of June 30 and US$30m drawn on a revolving credit facility.
Exor, the investment arm of the Italian Agnelli family, is Via’s largest shareholder with 14.1m shares owned. In 2020, Exor acquired what was then an 8.9% stake by investing US$200m in an early-stage round.
In February 2023, Via raised another US$100m in a funding round led by 83North that valued it at $3.5bn. Exor, Pitango and Janus Henderson were among the investors that participated in that round.