Location data manager Yext files for $100m IPO

Make way for another tech IPO.

Hot on the heels of Snap’s frenzied debut, Yext, a New York-based location data management company, has filed paperwork with the US securities regulators on Monday to raise as much as $100m in an initial public offering.

The $100m figure, a placeholder, is likely to change as underwriters begin a road show to market the company to investors.

Founded in 2006, Yext bills itself as a “knowledge engine”. According to the prospectus, the digital-marketing company helps businesses synchronise their data across local search services including Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Siri and Yelp.

It made $89.7m in revenues for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016, up from $60m the previous year. The company remains loss-making however, with net loss widening to $26.5m for the 2016 fiscal year, compared to a net loss of $17.3m recorded in the prior 12 month period.

Yext’s IPO filing comes as US stocks continue to trade near record highs. Frenzied demand for growth stocks helped Snap, the owner of the disappearing message app Snapchat, to a 44 per cent first-day trading “pop” earlier this month. However, the shares have since pared some of their gains and are currently trading below the $24 debut price.

Here is a description of Yext’s business, per its prospectus:

“Intelligent search, which are searches of digital knowledge that combine context and intent, has grown significantly in recent years. In particular, searches that return maps in the results have grown significantly with the proliferation of mobile devices and now make up 30% of all mobile searches. For example, searches for categories, such as ‘restaurants’, ‘wine’, ‘insurance’, ‘wealth advisor’ or ‘doctor’, or for specific brands, such as ‘Marriott’, ‘McDonald’s’ or ‘Home Depot’, return maps directly in the search results.

The source of the results for each of these searches is not a web page—it is structured data. Businesses and service providers want their information to be accurate, compelling and more prominent than that of their competitors when consumers look for them on search platforms, applications, social media, connected devices and other digital sources. Our solution drives commerce by providing real-time digital knowledge that allows consumers to find the businesses and service providers that are most relevant to them.”