Everyone Will Be Watching Wix's $119 Million IPO This Week
It filed its paperwork with the SEC in May using the confidential provision enabled by the JOBS Act. Last week, it revealed it will sell 7.7 million shares (29% from existing shareholders) priced between $14.50 and $16.50 with plans to raise $119 million for the company. At the mid-point price, the company will be valued at $719 million.
On Monday, Wix set the date for the IPO: Wednesday.
Wix, founded in 2006, generated $44 million in revenue in 2012, and lost $12 million. For the first nine months of September, it generated $56 million and lost $18 million.
The company, based in Tel Aviv, hosts build-your-own websites. It's available in multiple languages in 190 countries and is growing at a rate of 34,000 new registered users per day, it says. The websites can be designed for mobile devices, too.
Wix is one of a string of Israeli tech companies with a profitable exit in 2013. But most of the others were acquired. For instance, in 2013, Google bought Waze for about $1 billion. Cisco paid $475 million for wireless company Intucell. EMC bought storage startup ScaleIO for about $300 million.
This will be the one of the biggest Israeli U.S. IPOs since 2010, Forbe's Katie Roof reports.
Israel is known as "startup nation" and U.S. investors have been pouring venture investment funds into the country for the past few years, including Google chairman Eric Schmidt's fund, Innovation Endeavors, Microsoft's VC fund, Battery Ventures, Benchmark, Bessemer and Sequoia.
For that reason, all eyes in Israel and the U.S. are on Wix's IPO. If it goes well, there will likely be a rush of other hot Israeli companies going public, too.
Our favorite thing about Wix is its gorgeous offices overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.