Hot on the heels of the Adore Beauty Group Ltd (ASX: ABY) and MyDeal.com.au Ltd (ASX: MYD) IPOs last week, another ecommerce company has hit the ASX boards on Monday.
The Zebit Inc (ASX: ZBT) share price landed on the Australian share market at 11am this morning following the successful completion of its IPO.
Unfortunately, it hasn't been a very good first day for the US-based e-commerce company's shares. At the time of writing they are fetching $1.24, down 21.5% from their listing price of $1.58 a share.
The Zebit IPO.
Zebit shares began trading on the ASX today following the successful completion of an IPO which saw the California-based company raise A$35 million at $1.58 a share. This gave Zebit a market cap of approximately $149 million.
The funds raised from the IPO will be used to rapidly accelerate its growth in North America.
Not that it isn't already growing at a rapid rate. The company's revenue increased 117.8% from US$20.8 million in 2017 to US$45.3 million in 2018, before rising a further 88.7% in 2019 to US$85.5 million.
What is Zebit?
Zebit is an e-commerce platform with a built-in buy now, pay later offering (BNPL). It has a focus on the large (and growing) proportion of the US population (est. 100 million) that is considered to be credit challenged.
The company notes that access to affordable credit for this demographic is extremely limited and they wouldn't qualify for credit cards or even for regular BNPL platforms like Afterpay Limited (ASX: APT) or Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL).
The company's Founder and CEO, Marc Schneider, calls his company "the Amazon for the under-served." He says he knows his customer base better than anyone because, for a large part of his life, he was that customer.
Mr Schneider explained that he and his disabled mother lived in trailer parks for some years and, at one point, were also on the street.
Zebit offers tailored, interest free credit to anyone for up to six months for purchases on the company's e-commerce platform with minimal credit risk. This is achieved through a sophisticated algorithm that analyses potential customers and their likelihood of paying up.
