Since December, four companies have gone public via the classic direct listing: Roblox, Coinbase, ZipRecruiter, and Squarespace. For comparison, only three did in all of 2020, and three in 2018 and 2019 combined, Axios reports.
The new listing format was hailed as a solution for companies that want the benefits of a direct listing and need to raise new capital, although a laborious SEC approval process may be holding companies back.
“It’s a structure that’s fascinating on paper … and exceptionally difficult to figure out what company this would be for,” says Lise Buyer, founder of IPO consulting firm Class V Group. Read more.
