Compass CEO hails IPO as fundraising event in ‘tough’ market – TechCrunch



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As several tech companies choose to delay their IPOs in the face of less than enthusiastic market demand for their shares, real estate tech company Compass has stepped forward and gone public today. After valuing its shares at $ 18 each last night, the bottom of a lowered IPO price range, Compass shares closed the day up just under 12% at 20.15 $ each.

TechCrunch meets with CEO and Founder of Compass Robert reffkin to discuss the beginnings of his company in the suddenly choppy waters of the market for technological and technological debuts.

As to whether Compass is a tech company or a real estate brokerage, Reffkin – who brought up the comparison himself – took the opportunity to note that companies like Amazon or Tesla are not just one thing. Amazon is part logistics company, e-commerce company, cloud computing company, and media concern. Price this.

The argument was enough for Compass to sell 25 million shares – a reduced amount – at its IPO price for a gross value of $ 450 million. That, the CEO said, was his company’s goal for its public offering.

Sparing at TechCrunch the CEO’s usual line that an IPO is not a destination but simply a stop on a longer journey at this point, Reffkin instead argued that putting nine digits of capital into his company was his goal. , not a particular price or resulting valuation.

It might sound simple, but since Kaltura and Intermedia Cloud Communications have pushed back their IPOs, it’s a bit brave. Still, if fundraising was the primary focus, Compass got off to a successful start. He was even rewarded with a small increase in value on his first day of trading.

Reffkin confirmed to TechCrunch what we’ve been reporting lately that the IPO market has worsened in recent weeks. He described it as “difficult”.

So why go public now when there is so much capital available for private companies?

Reffkin cited a few numbers, but centered his perspective on what he considers the “good team” and “good results”. We’ll see a bit more about the latter when Compass releases its first set of public earnings.

For now, it’s a company that has braved more stormy seas than you might have expected so soon after the first few months of the year for IPOs.

And because I would bring it too if I ever took a company on the stock market, here is the founder and CEO of the company with his mother:

Image credits: Compass



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