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SurveyMonkey, the company known for the tools it offers for online surveys, raised $180 million at the time of its IPO. In the end, shares were more expensive than the company had originally thought. Yet there is something striking about the IPO.

SurveyMonkey was founded two decades ago. The company had no less than 16 million active users last year, although only 3.8 percent of them pay for the services. That also makes it difficult for SurveyMonkey to make a profit, something it has been struggling with for years.

Worth less

It is striking that SurveyMonkey is worth a lot less than before. Today it is valued at USD 1.25 billion, almost 40% less than four years ago when it was valued at USD 2 billion in an investment round. This is all the more striking as the company is attracting much more interest from investors than was originally expected.

The company planned to sell one and a half million shares at a price of 9 to 11 dollars. It then turned out that it was so popular that shares could be sold for at least $12 each. That’s what made SurveyMonkey decide to sell more: fifteen million.

Difficult to make a profit

SurveyMonkey has trouble getting black figures. In the first six months of 2018, the loss amounted to 27.2 million dollars. That’s more than the $19.1 million a year earlier. In 2017, the net loss amounted to 24 million dollars on a turnover of 218.8 million dollars. That is less than in 2016, when it recorded a loss of 74.6 million dollars on a turnover of 207.3 million dollars. Through the IPO, the company wants to pay off part of its debt and at the same time invest money in the development of its platform, as well as some acquisitions.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.