VC-backed Criteo to raise $176m in IPO

Ellie Pullen
14 October 2013

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French advertisement targeting company Criteo, backed by several venture capital firms, plans on raising $176m in its upcoming flotation on Nasdaq, valuing the company in the region of $1.5bn.

The company had expressed hopes of raising up to $190m when it filed its preliminary prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month.

Criteo will offer 7.2 million shares in the $23-26 price range, meaning the company could raise anywhere between $165.6m and $187.2m. The mid-point of the price range – around $24.5 – would give Criteo a market cap of $1.5bn.

According to Nasdaq, the company originally filed its confidential plans to list at the end of May this year. JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank Securities and Jefferies are acting as lead underwriters for the flotation. Criteo intends to list its shares on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "CRTO".

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.

Criteo has closed four funding rounds to date, according to unquote" data. Despite it coming in as an investor after the company's series-A round, Index is Criteo's largest shareholder with a 23.4% stake. Idinvest holds a 22.6% stake, while Elaia owns 13.5% and Bessemer 9.5%.

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 in 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.

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.