Criteo, a French adtech company, listed on Nasdaq in 2013. Edouard Lassalle joined in 2012 to prepare the company for the IPO, and later served as head of Investor Relations for the company until 2022.
One of the topics that comes up at an early stage during IPO preparation is the choice of listing location. In earlier episodes, we have heard from tech executives at Wise, DeliveryHero, OVHCloud and Exclusive Networks why they decided to list in Europe.
Today, we look back at the 2013 US IPO of Criteo. Criteo was founded in 2005 and backed by leading VC investors such as Elaia, Index Ventures and Bessemer, with a global customer base. In 2013, the company was listed on Nasdaq, raising $280mn to fund its growth.
Edouard Lassalle joined the company in 2012 to prepare the company for the IPO, and later served as head of Investor Relations for the company until 2022. Edouard shares with us his list of pros and cons of a US vs European listing for a European tech company, as well as considerations around the different characteristics of US and European markets, and the impact is has on the company.
🎧 Listen here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts 🎧
🗨️ Some of our favourite quotes from our conversation:
“So the [US] market’s pretty crowded […] Over the 10 years that I spent at Criteo, there were more and more companies going public. […] So that makes it very noisy, very difficult to get your voice heard, especially for SMids”
“It’s a market that is very much storytelling driven. Sometimes it’s disconnected from a multiple. In Europe, we probably have a more fundamental way of looking at companies and saying, okay, your story is very compelling, but how do you justify and rationalize the multiple?”
“One thing that we carefully thought through in that process was to make it a primary only IPO. So, make sure that we align correctly the interests of the company and not conflicting with the interests of the VCs”
Disclaimer: this discussion is not financial advice, nor an investment recommendation, nor a solicitation to buy or sell any financial instruments, or an offer for financial services or any other transaction. The information contained in the recording have no contractual value and are destined for an informational purpose only. Amundsen Investment Management and the participants on this podcast may have holdings in the companies being discussed.
Recent Comments