VC-backed Viadeo raises €24.4m in IPO

Ellie Pullen
02 July 2014

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French social network operator Viadeo has raised a total of €24.4m in its IPO, giving the company a market cap of €171.1m.

The company settled at the lower end of its indicative price range of €17.10-20.90 per share, selling a total of 1.42 million shares at €17.10 each.

The offering comprised 1.29 million new shares and an additional 139,000 existing shares. A further 17,752 existing shares have been allocated for an overallotment option.

Just last week the firm received a €5m investment from A Capital ahead of its IPO.

The company's backers, BPI France, Idinvest and Ventech, have collectively committed €11.5m to the offering. Following the flotation, BPI will hold a 10.6% stake in Viadeo, while Idinvest will own 13.7% and Ventech will hold 11.1%.

Conditional dealing commenced this morning on the Euronext Paris under the ticker "VIAD". Unconditional trading of shares will begin on Monday 7 July. Jefferies and Societe Generale acted as bookrunners for the flotation.

Previous funding
In 2004, business angel federation Agregator provided €5m in seed funding for Viadeo, according to unquote" data.

Idinvest and Ventech then committed a combined €5m in exchange for a minority stake in June 2006. In September the following year, the two investors injected an additional €5m into the business.

BPI France (then FSI) injected €10m into the firm in a €24m round in 2012, with the remaining capital coming from existing investors Idinvest and Ventech, as well as new investors Jefferies & Company, Allianz and backers in the Middle East.

Company
Viadeo is a professional social network with 9 million users in France and 60 million members worldwide. The company is present in China through its Tianji business, which has 20 million users. Tianji is managed by a team in China and claims to add 500,000 new members every month.

Established in 2004, Viadeo is headquartered in Paris with additional offices in Beijing, Moscow, Casablanca and San Francisco. The company, which employs 450 staff, reported turnover of €30.1m, a net loss of €13.1m and adjusted EBITDA of €1.1m in 2013.

People
Dan Serfaty is the CEO of Viadeo.