Hootsuite Prepares for IPO After Delays | Plan to Raise $158 Million

Urian B., Tech Times 25 November 2021, 08:11 pm

Hootsuite is now preparing for its IPO after being delayed. The Vancouver-based social startup is planning to raise $200 million CAD or almost $158 million USD from the IPO funding round.

Hootsuite Plans to Go Public

According to the story by BetaKit, they initially reported that Hootsuite was planning its IPO to take place before Christmas. The plan was for the company to be able to raise $158 million USD to help fuel the company's acquisitive entrance into the wide social commercial space.

Sources that were familiar with Hootsuite's operations said that it is most unlikely that the company gets to hit its original timeline. One source said that the new Canadian tech IPOs "window has closed."

Tech Sector IPO Performance

The Globe and Mail reported that the average return for some tech sector IPOs over the past year was minus 2.4% compared to the 16% average of the stock market. Some of the more troubled IPOs within the last few months included D2L, which is an Ed-Tech company based in Kitchener-Waterloo which closed around $50 million less compared to its original expectations.

The TMX Group (owner of TSX Venture Exchanges and TSX) director of global business development, Dani Lipkin, said that the period that is leading towards the holidays is when there are not a lot of people around. Lipkin said that going public around December's last week could be "a bit more unusual."

Lipkin Shares His Thoughts on Going Public

Lipkin clarified that this does not mean that nothing would get done but rather that it would be unusual for an IPO to happen "during the last week or two of the year." Lipkin still said that if there is a company that they want to both meet and invest in, they will be taking the meeting through their laptop, phone, or iPad wherever they are.

Lipkin also called the current rash of IPOs, saying that this is the greatest tech period in Canada that has ever happened, cautioning people that judging a company's performance days or weeks after isn't actually a proper benchmark. With this, he stated that going public is just a simple step along the company's journey and that the company's success is still gauged over the long term.

Lipkin IPO Performance

Lipkin said that when it comes to the short term, there is a lot of noise that can detract from the performance of the company itself. Although this may be true, startups are still watching IPO performances and making decisions regarding either their success or lack of it.

Sangoma Technologies Corporation is another company that announced on November 15 that it plans to go public on the NASDAQ Global Select Market before choosing to reverse course just two days later. According to the article by GlobalNewsWire, the company cited "market conditions" for their decision.

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Written by Urian B.