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<div type="image" title="In 2024, India has seen around $12.2 billion worth of IPOs, including mainboard and SMEs" msid="113878163" hostid="261" sizebytes="45300" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;In 2024, India has seen around $12.2 billion worth of IPOs, including mainboard and SMEs&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Missing some action, adrenaline rush, and thrill in your life? Are the good old, albeit mundane money investment avenues like mutual funds and fixed deposits not making the cut for you? Want to experience a heart-pounding, financial rollercoaster that will constantly keep you and your portfolio on tenterhooks? Well then, welcome to the world of initial public offers (IPOs), especially those brought to you by SMEs, or <keyword id="6375845" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Small-and-Medium-Enterprises" source="Orion">small and medium enterprises</keyword>. Truth be told, <keyword id="19938687" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sme" source="keywords">SME</keyword> IPOs have been all over the bourses this year. So far, 2024 has seen 206 SMEs debuting on both BSE and NSE, out of which 146 listed in gains and 46 listed in losses. Odds seem good, right? In contrast, the year has only seen 63 IPOs from the elder brother i.e. mainboard, only 48 of which managed to post any listing gains. And getting an allotment has also been a major uncertainty, given the unusually high demand this year. <h2 style="margin-bottom: 0.7em; line-height: 1.3; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 24px; background: 0px 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">So, what's an <keyword id="5559702" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="SME-IPO" source="Orion">SME IPO</keyword>, you ask?</h2>Think of a mainboard company as Shah Rukh or Salman Khan—well-established, financially stable, strong legacy of profitability, and fairly well-known. On the other hand, SMEs are your Prateek Gandhi (Harshad Mehta, Scam 1992), Siddhant Chaturvedi (MC Sher, Gully Boy) or Avinash Tiwary (Majnu, Laila Majnu). While they are doing super well, they are yet to make it big like the Khans. They’re currently underdogs, lesser known, but who knows? They can be the next big thing in the future! And SME IPOs are getting a stellar reception. In 2023, 182 such IPOs had raised a substantial Rs 4,967 crore. In 2024, more than 200 companies have already raised over Rs 7,500 crore, and we have four months to go. This, with one quarter of the year still remaining. <div type="image" title="In 2024, India leads IPO activity in the Asia-Pacific region" height="900" width="1200" msid="113875643" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;In 2024, India leads IPO activity in the Asia-Pacific region&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> But what does it take for a company to be classified as a small enterprise? The company has to have an annual turnover/income of up to Rs 50 crore, and for a medium enterprise to be called so, its annual income has to be up to Rs 250 crore. When such companies go public, in a bid to raise funds from investors and expand their operations, they launch an <keyword id="19898327" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ipo" source="keywords">IPO</keyword>, but not on the main exchange, but separately, on NSE’s Emerge and BSE’s SME platform. As of September 2024, <keyword id="4484133" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NSE-Emerge" source="Orion">NSE Emerge</keyword> has 147 listed participants, while <keyword id="1885131" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="BSE-SME" source="Orion">BSE SME</keyword> has 155 market makers. Mounting an SME’s IPO is comparatively less stringent than their mainboard counterparts, as far as regulations are concerned since their DRHPs (draft red herring prospectus) are not filed with SEBI. So, wouldn’t a lenient treatment make them inherently riskier? Why are they so appealing, you ask? <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/a-company-with-8-employees-looking-to-raise-12-crore-ended-up-getting-applications-worth-over-4700-crore/articleshow/112824522.cms">Delhi firm with just 8 employees seeks ₹12 crore via IPO, gets ₹4,700 crore worth of investor applications!</a> Well, for one, some of them have delivered exceptional returns—we’re talking 100%, 200%. Consider this—Owais Metal and Mineral Processing, which launched its IPO in February this year, delivered a whopping listing gain of 201%. Another SME, Maxposure, whose IPO was out in January 2024, had earned its investors listing gains worth 317.40%! Apparently, higher risks also mean higher returns, and also super high investment. Most SME IPOs need a minimum investment of Rs 1,00,000 or more, as opposed to mainboard IPOs, where you can buy one lot of shares for anywhere between Rs 14,000-15,000. Even the minimum trading lot size for SME shares is about 10,000. In short, you’d have to potentially empty your pockets to invest in an SME IPO. And still, there’s no guarantee that the listing will fill your wallets. For all you know, your pockets before and after the IPO is listed might stay the same - EMPTY! There's also the question of whether or not these SMEs are able to maintain their listing day mojo, or do they just fizzle out thereafter? Data from Prime Database highlights more instances of the latter. As of August 2024, about 166 SME IPOs had made it to the exchanges. Around 72 of them, or close to 50%, could not sustain their momentum going ahead, and were trading below their listing day prices. Consider this. The post listing gains of Medicamen Organics, whose IPO came out in June 2024, earned its investors massive listing gains of over 300%, by listing at Rs 137.85, significantly higher than its price issue price, which was set between Rs 32-34. But as of October 1, 2024, the stock was trading at Rs 64.2. Talk about falls. Additionally, risks of pump-and-dump, and illiquidity, among others makes SME IPOs dangerous See, you're largely venturing into unknown, pitch-dark territories, without much light to guide you. For starters, SME IPOs face less scrutiny from market watchdog SEBI. This also means they are able to list quickly, just 3-4 months. On the other hand, mainboard IPOs can take upto a year before they are cleared for listing. Also, there is far less information and disclosures available about their financials, fundamentals and performance to investors for making an informed decision, as compared to mainboard stocks. Then there’s the issue of illiquidity. Once purchased, you might find it hard to sell off your SME stocks, since they are not traded as frequently in the market, which means lower liquidity. Trivesh D, COO, Tradejini explains that liquidity is a major concern for such stocks. “These stocks typically have a smaller free float, and are traded in lots, which can lead to volatility and sharp price swings. This means it can be challenging for investors to buy or sell shares without significantly impacting prices. Additionally, speculative trading practices, like 'pump-and-dump' schemes, can inflate stock prices, leaving retail investors vulnerable to sudden drops”. Recently, SME IPOs have gained notoriety for price manipulation via showing fictitious sales and revenue in their books of accounts, selling of promoter holdings at inflated prices, and being the facade for many infamous pump and dump schemes. This is where select people create frenzy, or mass euphoria over a particular stock or company, causing its prices to soar, and then dumping them, or selling their shares at this massive price to make a killing! Infact, it's not just the promoters, but also the investment banks floating these IPOs. At present, SEBI is investigating around 6 investment banks which have allegedly charged SMEs a staggering 15% of funds raised via IPOs as fee, as opposed to the standard 1-3%. In March 2024, SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch had also highlighted witnessing signs of manipulation in the SME space. “We do see signs of manipulation in the SME segment. We are able to see certain patterns.” Buch had observed back then. Adds Kresha Gupta, Founder &amp; Director, StepTrade Share Services, “Investing in SME IPO comes with significant risks, despite their impressive returns in recent years. Limited participation from institutional investors and public in some SME IPOs also mean that those companies may lack the support and stability that comes with larger-scale investments” “Additionally, many SMEs may not have strong fundamentals to justify their valuations. High P/E ratios can be misleading, and while some IPOs have delivered impressive returns, they often come with significant volatility, continues D of Tradejini. <h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.3; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 24px; list-style: none; background: 0px 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-transform: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">So, should I stay away?</h2>Yes, and No. Yes, if you don't want to do your homework of researching the company thoroughly beforehand. Anand K. Rathi, Co-Founder of MIRA Money suggests asking a couple of questions before investing your hard earned money: <ul><li>What is the company's financial performance over the past 3-4 years?</li><li>What is the company's governance structure?</li><li>Is the financial success driven by the IPO, or is it a result of consistent performance?</li><li>Does the company have what it takes to scale its operations to the next level?</li><li>Are the company’s promoters trustworthy, capable and experienced?</li><li>What is the level of participation by large, institutional investors?</li></ul> But staying away completely? Not necessary. Gupta adds that retail investors, in particular, should avoid viewing SME IPOs as quick money-makers based on their short-term performance, as this can certainly lead to poor investment decisions. “To mitigate risks, investors should always focus on long-term fundamentals rather than just short-term price movements. Key indicators include the participation of institutional investors like DIIs and FIIs. This often signals confidence in the stock”, she continues. A red flag you should look out for is if a company is only offering OFS, or Offer for Sale. This can indicate early investors looking to exit, potentially signaling weaker future growth. That's why it is better to look for companies which are raising capital for expansion purposes. This is a sign of healthy business growth prospects and improving fundamentals. In conclusion, backing the underdog, or SMEs, is not a bad proposition, but not without its risks. Investing in SME IPOs is like riding a unicorn—but you don't know whether you're riding it to rags or riches! So, take your pick.

SIMPLY PUT: Why investing in SME IPOs should not be on top of your adventure to-do list!

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The healthcare market looks nearly ready for the next wave of IPOs.</li><li>Barclays' Jon Swope says IPO hopefuls should prepare by increasing the awareness of their companies.</li></ul>It's been a rough few years for healthcare initial public offerings. But the next wave of public healthcare companies looks to be on the horizon.At least two healthcare companies are considering public-market debuts in the not-so-distant future. The diabetes startup <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-omada-health-confidentially-filed-s1-ipo-public-2024-10">Omada Health confidentially filed its S-1 this summer</a>. And the physical-therapy startup <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hinge-health-s-1-morgan-stanley-ipo-2024-9">Hinge Health has hired banks including Barclays</a> as it prepares to file its S-1 confidentially.Hinge and Omada likely aren't the only healthcare companies <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/healthcare-startups-ipo-public-markets-reopens-2024-1">weighing an IPO as market conditions improve</a>.Jon Swope, a managing director in Barclays' healthtech division, told me he expects a pickup in healthcare IPOs in 2025 after a three-year drought.<div type="image" title="A headshot of Jon Swope." height="1200" width="846" msid="114356715" hostid="261" sizebytes="24914"></div>I spoke with him about what the next wave of healthcare IPOs could bring — and which healthcare startups are in the best position to test the public markets.The following has been edited for clarity and length.In the past few years there have been a number of take-privates and near-delistings in healthcare, as well as plenty of healthcare companies that have otherwise struggled in the public markets. What can we learn from those companies' challenges, and how might they impact the next round of healthcare IPOs?The whipsaw of the public markets over the last five years has created a challenging backdrop, even with the overall market improving.From 2019 through 2021, nearly 20 companies went public through IPOs or SPACs in healthtech. At its peak, the total market cap for healthtech and digital health was over $300 billion. Through both take-privates and declines in share prices, that's down to just about $90 billion.Large take-privates like Change Healthcare, Nuance, Cerner, Inovalon, and others are part of the story. The other part is that, on average, the companies that went public or were already public are down by about 80% — names like Teladoc, Accolade, and Health Catalyst.The enthusiasm that supported the last wave, with respect to the positive and innovative business models in healthtech and digital health, is not gone. It's just that these companies haven't been able to achieve growth with profitability. When there's a next set, there's going to be more of a focus on growth and profitability.You see that in the IPOs that happened this year: Waystar and Tempus. Waystar is large-scale, profitable, with growth, and Tempus has the promise of AI, high growth, and emerging profitability. Both have performed since their public debut.In the private sphere, many investors have leaned away from healthcare services and into healthcare AI. What models do you expect the healthcare market to favor in this next round of IPOs?There are three general categories that are investible in healthtech and digital healthcare. One is simply data and then technology and healthcare. Healthcare is arguably two decades behind every other industry in the adoption of technology. Whether it's software, tech-enabled models, or, importantly, the data opportunity and AI opportunity, tech and data infrastructure for healthcare is No. 1.No. 2 is consumer-centric models, such as some B2B2C models, the employer and payer digital-health models, or even direct-to-consumer models. Look at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-hims-founders-journey-to-go-public-via-spac-2021-1">the performance of Hims</a>, which has emerged from its post-SPAC purgatory.Consumer-centric healthcare is the future of healthcare, and it's becoming more of our collective reality. The companies with consumer-centric business models that deliver longitudinal engagement and outcomes, financial and clinical, for consumers and the payers of healthcare, both employers and insurance companies, are certainly on the list.No. 3 is value-based care. Much has been made of that as a category, tying together costs and outcomes. And while some of the brick-and-mortar value-based care companies have had their own challenges, support for the adoption of value-based care by providers will continue to be where healthcare is going.Are there models in healthcare that you think are perhaps not the best fit for the public markets right now?The less complex the elevator pitch, the better. While I can't say there's a model that's not a fit, what we heard from investors as things were bending in the wrong direction last boom cycle was: "Wait, what did I just buy? I'm not sure I fully understand this company's business model."Now you have to juxtapose that against the reality of healthcare, which is complex. So it's companies that can articulate a clear and simple story while also navigating the layers of the healthcare ecosystem in executing on their business model.That includes riding the existing rails. In the last five-plus years we've seen companies figuring out how to work with the payers and providers that make up the healthcare ecosystem to bring innovation and disruption to how we experience healthcare.Given the major slowdown in SPAC deals in the past few years and Nuvo's poor performance (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-22/newly-public-pregnancy-care-firm-nuvo-files-for-bankruptcy">and bankruptcy</a>) this year, could we see more SPAC deals for healthcare startups next year?It's a four-letter word for the foreseeable future. I imagine there will be SPACs created, and there are still others that haven't run out of time, but it's unlikely that we see companies using that vehicle that could go public the regular way.For startups that don't go public, will we see M&amp;A pick up in 2025? With large retailers like Walmart pulling away from healthcare, who are the potential buyers?M&amp;A is picking up already, as evidenced by volume this year, and it will continue to, particularly in an easing financing environment and macro backdrop where bid-ask spreads are narrowing.The consolidation activity is in three categories. First, there are the large-cap consolidators including retailers, payers, and Big Tech. There will be deals there, but there are only so many that will be done by that group, which is not much more than a dozen companies.The next is large-cap, and often private-equity-backed, healthtech consolidators. A number of them are private and will continue to be buyers.The third category is just smaller mergers of equals. Especially for enterprise sales, selling into payers or selling to providers, scale matters, and so size matters. We'll see small companies merge with other small companies to get there.Anything else startups should know that might impact this next cycle of IPOs?While these companies that went public in the last cycle may not have fulfilled their promises, they set the stage for an attractive IPO market by going public the right way — executing on the business and growing it, and increasing awareness around the company well in advance of an IPO.At the back end of the last boom wave there was a rush to go public, and SPACs were examples of that. I think that in the 2025, 2026, and 2027 IPO classes, there will be a number of companies that think about it the right way, not rushing to get to the public market.

2025 could bring a wave of healthcare IPOs. Here's what startups should know, according to a top banker.

IPOs of <keyword id="22105289" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aasan-Loans" source="keywords">Aasan Loans</keyword> (<keyword id="22105288" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Akme-Fintrade" source="keywords">Akme Fintrade</keyword> India) and <keyword id="22105291" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="DEE-Piping-Systems" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="DEE Piping Systems" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="DEE Piping Systems">DEE Piping Systems</keyword> (DEE Development Engineers Limited) are set to hit the D-street for subscription today, and will close on Friday, 21st June. With a price band of Rs 114-Rs 120, Aasan Loans, which offers loans to rural and semi-urban populations, aims to raise 132 crores via a fresh issue of 1.1 crore shares. With its niche in vehicle and business financing, experts are advising staying away from the <keyword id="19898327" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="IPO" source="keywords">IPO</keyword>, given how competitive the Indian NBFC space is. The company also harbours significant NPAs, and has had some compliance issues in the past as well. The other mainboard IPO, <keyword id="22105286" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="DEE-Piping" source="keywords">DEE Piping</keyword> Systems, intends to raise Rs 418 crore via combination of fresh issue and offer for sale (OFS). While Rs 325 crores will be raised via fresh issue, Rs 93.01 crores will be raised via OFS. With its price band set between Rs 193-Rs 203, DEE specialises in providing piping solutions to oil, gas, chemicals and power industries. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="SME IPO dashboard" comment="subhead" text="SME IPO dashboard">SME IPO dashboard</cmsannotation> While these are mainboard IPOs, 3 small and medium enterprises (SME), namely <keyword id="22105292" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Falcon-Technoprojects-India" source="Orion">Falcon Technoprojects India</keyword>, <keyword id="22071172" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Durlax-Top-Surface" source="Orion">Durlax Top Surface</keyword> and <keyword id="22105290" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gem-Enviro" source="keywords">GEM Enviro</keyword> are also opening for subscription today. The company, which aims to raise Rs 13.69 crore, offers mechanical and plumbing services, which includes installing air conditioners, water supply and lighting systems. Its share price has been set at Rs 92. The other company on the SME dashboard is Durlax Top Surface, which has 2 brands, namely LUXOR and ASPIRON. The company manufactures solid surface materials, which include UV acrylic solid sheets. The company wants to raise Rs 40.80 crore, out of which Rs 28.56 crore will be raised via fresh issue, and the remaining will be accumulated via offer for sale. The stock’s price band is set between Rs 65-68. Gem Enviro, which specialises in plastic waste management and recycling, aims to raise Rs 44.93 crore via this IPO. Stock analyst Dilip Dawda recommends investing in this IPO for medium to long-term gains, given that the company has paid dividend over the past 2 years <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="IPOs closing today" comment="subhead" text="IPOs closing today">IPOs closing today</cmsannotation> IPOs of <keyword id="22105287" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="GPES-Solar" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="GPES Solar" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="GPES Solar">GPES Solar</keyword>, which opened on 14th June, and United Cotfab, which opened on 13th June, are closing today. GPES Solar, which is in the business of solar inverters and panels, aims to raise Rs 31 crore. Its IPO was oversubscribed around 408.3 times. Retail investors oversubscribed to the share by around 519.57 times. However, Dawda recommends subscription to this IPO only if you are a market veteran and have surplus, long-term funds to park. The IPO of United Cotfab, which manufactures open-end cotton yarn, is also closing today. It was oversubscribed by 48.27 times in the retail investor category. While the company intends to raise Rs 36.29 crore entirely via fresh issue, experts have raised concerns about the company’s profitability and sustainability.

IPO Overview : DEE Piping, Akme Fintrade, GPES Solar

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Louis Lehot, a Silicon Valley law-firm partner, specializes in taking companies from startup to IPO.</li><li>Lehot gave his suggestions for how to prepare, like hires to make and risks to consider pre-IPO.</li></ul>The IPO market is expected to pick up later this year, so Business Insider emailed Silicon Valley lawyer Louis Lehot, a partner at Foley &amp; Lardner, for advice on how startups should prepare for life as public companies.Lehot has more than 25 years of experience advising businesses, financial sponsors, venture capitalists, investors, and investment banks on topics including equity offerings, mergers, acquisitions, and spinoffs. His work often involves helping startups prepare for initial public offerings.The following has been edited for brevity.What's the environment like for IPOs?2023 was the toughest year for IPO activity in more than two decades. The IPO outlook for the second half of 2024, or at least the first half of 2025, can only get better.Riskier assets, such as Bitcoin, have rebounded strongly, suggesting risk appetite is a lot higher. The Fed is expected to make at least one rate cut later this year. The after-market performance of some recent IPOs has been stronger. Earnings reports from public companies are improving.There's a substantial backlog of companies preparing to go public as soon as the window opens, and the outcome of important federal and state election races should bring greater clarity.Which sectors are most likely to be successful in an IPO?<ul><li>Healthcare and Biotech: These companies go public as part of their venture financing path, often before they have a product in the market. As a result, they are heavily risk-driven, and the opportunity to make alpha with smaller amounts of capital invested is real. If risk appetite is truly back, we can expect investors to pile into biotech, life sciences, and medical device IPOs. New tech, enabled by CRISPR and AI, should increase the speed and accuracy of clinical trials.</li><li>Green Energy: As the effects of climate change spread, we expect industrial policy to favor renewable energy companies and the ecosystem that they enable, maybe even nuclear energy. Renewables and related technologies are gaining traction with a growing focus on sustainability.</li><li>Enterprise software and fintech: There's a solid backlog of late-stage private companies whose venture capital and private equity investors require a public market exit to return capital to limited partners and raise new funds. As a result, we expect a bumper crop of enterprise software (B2B solutions, cloud services, and cybersecurity) and fintech companies (digital banking, payments, and financial services) to come to market when the window opens later this year or next.</li></ul>Are public market investors generally keen to invest in IPOs, or are they focused elsewhere?Public market investors are selective, focusing on established profitability and sustainable growth over speculative, high-growth stories. Many investors are diverting their attention to safer, more predictable assets due to market volatility and economic concerns.What are IPO investors expecting in the current climate?<ul><li>Profitability, or a clear path to profitability: Unlike previous periods focused solely on growth, profitability is now critically correlated to a successful IPO.</li><li>Sustainable revenue growth: Consistent and predictable growth trajectories</li><li>Robust metrics: Strong KPIs and unit economics</li><li>Valuation discipline: More conservative valuations compared to the frothy markets of past IPO booms</li></ul>Should tech startups want to go public right now?If you have a choice, you stay private.For example, if you're the CEO of a successful startup with more than $100 million in revenue that's growing in excess of 30% at over 40% gross profit margins, every door is open to you.There's ample private capital to finance your company's scaling needs. There is likely a robust secondary market for your personal shares if you need to take some chips off the table. You have no obligation to report your compensation and equity holdings publicly or your company's quarterly results, much less live under the public microscope and the constant glare of Wall Street analysts who are focused on reporting on any short-term event that might drive trading.Fringe benefits include more control over business decisions, fewer regulatory requirements, and the ability to focus on long-term growth.The choice is not even close. Any CEO-founder would want to stay private. Look no further than the example of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-collison-brothers-built-stripe-most-valuable-us-startup-2021-3">Collison brothers at Stripe</a>.However, the characteristics that drive a transformational CEO-founder to achieve this level of commercial success are not necessarily driven by the same logic.The vision of a transformational CEO extends far beyond the perceived short-term benefits of a quick exit. I'm surrounded by mission-driven CEO's with the burning ambition to achieve global market ubiquity, which usually means an IPO is a necessary step on their long road.What are the most important hires to make before an IPO?<ul><li>Chief Financial Officer: A CFO with public company experience is crucial for navigating financial reporting and investor relations.The CFO of a public company is the first or second line of communication with Wall Street, key long-term investors, auditors of your financial statements, and financial regulators. In addition, the finance department will quickly need someone who can manage internal controls over financial reporting and write public financial reports. This person is usually a "controller."The CFO will also need someone who can forecast, model, and plan ahead and ensure that the company, when going public and forever thereafter, accurately telegraphs its future performance on a forward-looking, one-quarter, and one-year-ahead basis. This is usually a vice president for forecasting, planning, and analysis, or FP&amp;A. For larger public companies, a chief accounting officer is also on the road map.</li><li>General Counsel: Whereas 20 years ago, a general counsel was not hired until just before an IPO, nowadays, a company with $10 million of revenue or more may consider hiring a head of legal in-house to control costs, particularly for rote, repeatable tasks. But an IPO puts the company under a microscope of regulatory, investor, employee, and public scrutiny where the stakes get large enough that an experienced general counsel is usually hired, and if large enough to support the cost, even a deputy general counsel for securities law compliance to manage the more hours intensive processes of making the company ready for IPO and maintaining compliance thereafter.</li><li>Investor Relations Officer: About a year ahead of the big day, a forward-thinking CFO will try to hire a vice president of investor relations who has been through the process of managing a syndicate of analysts before, during, and after an IPO. Particularly for larger companies who garner analyst coverage from six or more sell-side and buy-side analysts, making sure the analysts are getting adequate information to build quality models will ensure higher quality coverage and greater liquidity for the company once public, which is a critical indicator of success.</li><li>Audit Committee Chair: While a pre-IPO company will seek to hire a majority-independent board of directors, the audit committee chair is one key role to fill on the board.The audit committee chair is usually a former CFO who has deep knowledge of the IPO process and the interplay of a board of directors and its independent registered public accounting firm, which is a critical relationship at every stage of an IPO and beyond.The audit committee's role is to oversee the production and auditing of the financial statements and the financial integrity of the company's public disclosures and compliance with regulatory standards. The audit committee chair will want to make sure there are at least two other directors who can serve independently on the audit committee who are financially literate and expert enough to assist them.</li></ul>What are the biggest changes startups must go through to be IPO-ready?To consider a successful IPO, a tech company will need to have line of sight to $100 million in revenue with eight quarters of historical growth and line of sight to eight quarters in the future of predictable growth. For a tech business, annual growth in GAAP revenue will need to be in excess of 20% (and ideally double this amount) at gross margins of 40% or more. These are herculean feats that few businesses will ever achieve.There also has to be some other ingredient, which some call the "sizzle," to inspire long-term fundamental investors to believe that growth can be significantly greater than what the models show over the next eight quarters.Historically, that sizzle could be explained by exposure to international markets that would be enabled by the scaling capital provided by the IPO.Today, revenue from a US tech business may well be evenly split between US and international markets from the outset, so the "sizzle" will need to come from planned advances in technology, new product releases, and new product enhancements that will unlock new and significant branches of growth.What are the key process changes companies need to make ahead of an IPO?<ul><li>Leveling up the company's financial reporting function: Enhanced accuracy and transparency in financial statements is an absolute necessity, both historically and forward-looking for eight quarters in both directions.</li><li>Corporate governance: Companies need to recruit an experienced, independent, and supportive board that can provide wisdom to management during the IPO process and beyond.</li><li>Operational scalability: Ensuring systems and processes can support growth and compliance requirements. Have you installed a world-class ERP software system? Do you have a contract management system and CRM software? Do they all work together?</li><li>Compliance and risk management: Implementing robust controls to meet regulatory standards is a playbook that a new CFO and new General Counsel can implement with the help of outside advisors.</li></ul>

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SIMPLY PUT: Why investing in SME IPOs should not be on top of your adventure to-do list!

Ira Alok Puranik

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