
VC-backed Criteo raises $250m in IPO
French advertisement targeting company Criteo, backed by several venture capital firms, has raised $250m in its IPO on Nasdaq.
Shares started trading above the proposed price at $31 per unit. The company had originally expressed hopes of raising up to $190m when it filed its preliminary prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month.
Criteo also ended up selling more shares than initially stated. The company originally intended to offer 7.2 million shares in the $23-26 price range, but in the end sold 8.08 million at the inflated price.
The French company is backed by venture capital firms Index Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Elaia Partners and Idinvest Partners, as well as Softbank Corporation, Adams Street Partners, SAP Ventures and Yahoo Japan.
Previous funding
Criteo's series-A funding round took place in March 2006 and saw Elaia and Idinvest inject €3m into the business. Idinvest contributed €1.8m to the round with Elaia making up the balance, according to unquote" data.
In December 2007, Index joined Elaia and Idinvest in Criteo's series-B funding round, investing €7m in the company. According to the SEC filing, Index invested via its €350m Index Ventures IV fund, which held its final close in February 2007.
Criteo's third funding round saw Bessemer lead a $7m (€5.3m) series-C in April 2010. This was followed by the company's series-D round in October 2012, which saw Bessemer contribute additional capital alongside the round's equity lead, Softbank Corporation, as well as Adams Street, SAP and Yahoo Japan. Collectively, the consortium invested €30m in Criteo in its series-D.
Company
Founded in 2005, Criteo is headquartered in Paris with 14 additional offices worldwide, including in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, as well as four in the US. The company employs approximately 800 staff and recorded turnover of €271.9m in 2012, as well as an EBITDA of €17.4m. Turnover and EBITDA for the six months ending June 2013 reached €194.3m and €5.2m respectively.
Criteo is an advertisement targeting company that prices and supplies personalised advertising in real-time for its e-commerce client base. The company uses predictive software algorithms that allow it to leverage the data of e-commerce sites to make advertisement placement decisions based on website activity. The company has partnerships with more than 4,000 clients.
People
Criteo was founded by CEO Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, chief scientist Franck le Ouay and CTO Romain Niccoli. The company's board of directors comprises Bessemer partner Byron Deeter, Elaia partner Marie Ekeland, Idinvest managing partner Benoist Grossmann, and Index partner Dominique Vidal.
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