Sept 20 (Reuters) – Toast Inc is aiming for a valuation of
up to $18 billion after raising the price range for its initial
public offering in the U.S., as the restaurant-software maker
looks to cash in on a record boom in capital markets this year.
Toast, founded in 2011, offers a software platform that
allows restaurants to keep up with the fast-changing needs of
their business, including managing online orders, operating an
on-demand delivery network and integrating payments.
The company said it was now looking to sell nearly 21.7
million shares priced between $34 and $36 each, according to a
regulatory filing https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1650164/000119312521276664/d166297ds1a.htm
on Monday. It had earlier aimed to price the shares between $30
and $33 each.
At the top end of the new range, Boston-based Toast would
raise up to $782.6 million in its IPO.
As of June 30, the company has partnered with nearly 48,000
restaurant locations and has processed more than $38 billion in
gross payment volume over the past 12 months, the filing showed.
Toast, last valued at $5 billion after a funding round in
February, is looking to list in a market that has seen several
high-flying startups like Coinbase Global Inc, Roblox
Corp and China’s Didi Global Inc go public
this year.
Unprecedented government stimulus and near-zero interest
rates brought on to combat the economic fallout of the COVID-19
pandemic are fueling the bull run in U.S. capital markets.
Toast, which counts TPG, Tiger Global Management and
American Express Ventures among its investors, was forced to cut
its workforce by half in the early days of the pandemic.
It has shifted focus to products such as delivery networks
and contactless payments on strong demand for such services last
year.
Toast will list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange
under the symbol “TOST”.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren
Daniel)