Monday.com Jumps After IPO

Last week, Monday.com Ltd.’s stocks soared by 27%, following its U.S. trading debut, by raising $574 million during its initial public offering.

The task-management software firm’s shares opened at $173.15 last Thursday and traded as high as $182 apiece. This was 17% above their IPO price of $155, giving Monday.com a market value of $7.5 billion, thereby making the CEOs of the company billionaires. Even though the company initially marketed its shares for between $125 to $140O, the company sold 3.7 million shares for $155 each on Wednesday.

Their IPO was led by financial giants Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Currently, Monday.com’s shares trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol MNDY.

Following their IPO, various venture capital firms raced to grab a piece in the newly appointed company. Both Salesforce.com Inc.’s venture division and Zoom Video Communications Inc. agreed to purchase $75 million in Monday.com’s shares at IPO price, which has since increased more than 20 million. Insight Partners & Stripes and Entree Capital are also amongst other firms that hold significant stakes in the company.

Eran Zinman, who founded Monday.com with Roy Mann in 2012, said in an interview that the pair wish to keep growing the business as an independent company. “Both me and my partner, we don’t plan to sell…We want to build a big company. That’s our ambition… With our platform, we gave our users the ability to control their own software. So essentially, they can fully customize it.”

Initially called dapulse, monday.com launched out Mann’s drive to better manage his team (then at Wix) through software. Both he and Zinman (then head of R&D at Condiut Mobile) released a product in early 2014 that offered task management and team update abilities through various boards. Then in 2017, the two CEOs rebranded the company as monday.com–a nod to their international audience whose work weeks start on Mondays. The company reached a $550 million valuation in 2018 and expanded abroad, with offices in New York, London, and Sydney.

By the time monday.com tripled its valuation to $1.9 billion in 2019, the company had shifted its focus to integrating other apps into the repertoire, billing on a no-code basis, and increasing its platform customization. Mann argues that the company always envisioned itself as more of a “work operating system” used to run everything from hotels to manufacturing plants. Some of their biggest customers include Oscar, Universal Music Group, and the NHL.

Overall, this listing is the latest in a series of high-profile software IPOs. Post pandemic, the software sector has seen a boost, accelerated by economic growth, increased buyer demand, and companies’ overall digital transformation. Trade monday’s shares using MT5 now!