Investors in Australian-founded e-commerce software firm Rokt have lifted its valuation by $1.6 billion to $7.2 billion, saying it had outperformed expectations, and reigniting expectations it may soon dust off its plans for a Wall Street listing.
Global equity fund Hearts and Minds Investments told investors on Friday that it would increase the value of its initial $20 million stake in Rokt to more than $38 million. It follows investment bank Barrenjoey marking up its stake in Rokt to $45 per share, from $35 per share last month.
Rokt chief executive Bruce Buchanan is biding his time before pulling the trigger on a public float. Wolter Peeters
Rokt was last valued at $5.6 billion in a secondary share sale in January, but the 28 per cent increase to Barrenjoey and HM1’s stake means both firms now value it at around $7.2 billion.
Founded by former Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan in 2012, Rokt is the third-highest valued private technology company on the books of Australian investors, behind $65 billion design software giant Canva and $9.5 billion payments technology platform Airwallex.
It has raised over $US500 million ($764.8 million) in primary and secondary capital from investors including TDM Growth Partners, Square Peg Capital, Tiger Global, Wellington and Whale Rock.
HM1 said in July that Rokt was “a rare find” and had “significantly outperformed expectations” since January’s valuation increase. This is because Rokt reportedly increased its revenue by 40 per cent last year to $US600 million.
The company sells software that lets sellers make more money from online shoppers by using artificial intelligence to present customers with additional products and services they might like, as they are at the online checkout. Examples include promoting meal kits for people who are booking car parking or wine club subscriptions for purchasers of concert tickets.
“The company is highly cash generative and boasts growth and profitability metrics rivalling the best listed tech stocks,” HM1’s investor update reads.
Buchanan has long talked up the prospect of floating Rokt on the US tech-heavy Nasdaq. Its headquarters and leaders are in New York, where its biggest customers are based, but its initial public offering plans have been in mothballs since a retreat in private technology company valuations in 2022.
The success of design software company Figma’s recent US float has started chatter that Rokt and other larger private tech companies could soon follow suit.
In August, Buchanan said he and his investors had closely watched Figma’s listing and its initial share price surge. Figma’s shares rose from $US33 to $US122, but have since fallen back markedly to $US70.28.
“It is a tremendous validation of the market’s current appetite for a new class of product-led, profitable, high-growth technology leaders,” Buchanan said in August.
Like Canva, Rokt has been using secondary share sales to let its employees and early investors enrich themselves without committing to a float.
