After announcing it had filed IPO papers last month, the Nasdaq has reported that Criteo will look to raise $176 Million in their IPO, at a total valuation of $1.5 Billion. This represents a huge achievement for the Paris-based company, which has grown to become one of Google’s largest competitors in the Display Ad business. The IPO will be an opportunity for the founders & initial investors – Elaia Partners, IDInvest & Index Ventures – to get a long-awaited exit. After I met with IDInvest last week and discovered that they still have a 20%+ stake in Criteo, I thought I’d look at who’s going to be getting what in terms of return on investment.
Index Ventures weighs in as the single largest stakeholder, at a whopping 23.4%. The IPO will bring their share value to around $354 Million. Index Ventures entered as an investor in the Series B round; however, it seems they dominated the fundraising in those rounds, as previous investor Elaia was diluted (as we’ll see later). Nonetheless, their total investment couldn’t possibly exceed $20M given the other rounds. What’s interesting is to see that Index Ventures hold a slightly larger stake than investors from the Series A, as seen below. Index Ventures’ investment was led by Dominique Vidal
Idinvest, who came in at Series A alongside Elaia Partners holds a %22.6. The IPO will value their participation at $339 Million, not bad for a company that came in for roughly $3 Million in a Series A round, and another $10M in follow-up funding. Given an estimated $13 Million in investment, they stand to make a larger ROI than Index Ventures. Idinvest’s investment was led by Benoist Grossmann
Elaia Partners comes in at a %13.5, representing $202.5 Million value of shares post-IPO. Elaia was clearly diluted from their initial investment, though they managed to maintain a significant stake. While it’s difficult to estimate how much they invested in total, an $8 Million investment would still yield quite a hefty return that will enable Elaia to raise its next fund based off of its proven success. Elaia Partners’ investment was led by Marie Ekeland
CEO Jean-Baptiste Rudelle has managed to maintain a 10% stake in the company – a good benchmark note for founders wondering about how much dilution to expect – which will put his shares at $150 Million. Not bad for a company that pivoted three times and was founded just eight years ago.
Bessemer Ventures will walk away with a 9.5% stake in the company, something they picked up when they led the $40M Series C investment. Their 9.5% stake will afford them $142M, a much smaller ROI, though Criteo was already one of the fastest growing AdTech startups when they invested in 2010, so the ROI seems appropriate.
CTO Romain Niccoli & Chief Scientist Franck Le Ouay both enter the IPO with a 4.6% stake in the company they co-founded, affording each of them $69 Million in anticipated stock value.
In addition to these exits, any employee with at least a .06% stake in the company or higher will be becoming a millionaire, which should mean great things for the Paris ecosystem, where Criteo employs the vast majority of its staff.