Boston marketing-tech firm Klaviyo prepares for US market debut after pricing IPO above range. The Boston-based company’s initial public offering was priced at $30 on Tuesday, up from the $27 to $29 target set in an earlier securities filing. The price gives the company a fully diluted valuation of $9 billion. The shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KVYO and are expected to start trading on Wednesday.
Klaviyo’s technology furnishes e-commerce brands with data and tools to automate customer messaging. Founded in 2012, the firm has a customer base of 130,000 businesses worldwide. Its services include email, SMS, and push notifications.
In its latest financial results, the company reported a profit of $15 million on revenue of $321 million for the six months to June. That was a significant improvement from the loss of $25 million posted in the same period last year. Chief executive and co-founder Andrew Bialecki will retain 39% of the voting power after the IPO, while growth equity fund Summit Partners and e-commerce platform Shopify will each hold 21%.
The IPO will raise $576 million, including selling 19 million shares by the company and 8 million from existing stockholders. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup are leading book runners in the deal, with Barclays, Mizuho Financial Group Inc., and William Blair also participating. Baird, Canaccord Genuity, Needham & Company, and TD Cowen are co-managers.
In the crowded tech landscape, Klaviyo has stood out with its focus on data-driven marketing. Its omnichannel platform enables marketers to create and deploy personalized messages across channels based on various triggers, including purchase history or browsing behavior. That allows companies to reach out at the most opportune moment and can dramatically improve the chances of conversion.
Despite the recent success of Arm Holdings and Instacart, the IPO market has been quiet so far this year. A slew of deals in the coming weeks could help restore investor confidence in the sector, although it’s still too early to say whether the IPO drought is over.
