As a year, 2019 is coalescing into a slingshot of sorts for a host of tech, and tech-related companies. Years of disappointing IPO cohorts are now fading as, finally, a seemingly-reasonable number of venture-backed companies are going public.

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After some big names went out earlier in 2019 (, , , , etc), it would be more than fair to pause paying as close attention to the next set of companies going public. But that would be a mistake. While this week’s IPO pickings don’t have the same sort of star power as Uber et al, they are still important public debuts.

And if we are going to understand the state of late-stage venture, we’ll need to know how exits themselves are performing. So, these IPOs matter. That in hand, let’s get to it.

Three IPOs

We’ll consider the deals in order of when they are expected to trade. There are three to dig through. First up:

• Name:
• Expected trade date: July 17, 2019
• IPO price range: $11.50 to $14
• Crunchbase News coverage

The China-based DouYu follows into the U.S. public markets as a company focused on the worlds of game streaming and esports. The company, as we previously reported, has a history of gross-margin negative revenue.

However, DouYu’s finances have improved. Indeed, in its most recent quarter, DouYu’s revenue more than doubled to $221.9 million. The company earned just $30.3 million in gross profit off its top line, leading to a $7.2 million operating loss. Luckily, the firm’s huge cash position ($641.9 million) and some foreign exchange gains pushed the firm into profitability.

The company’s IPO is, therefore, a bet that its revenue growth will soon allow the firm enough gross profit to cover its operating costs. The company’s impending IPO raise will further pad its already wealthy accounts, giving the firm an unusually long runway to reach breakeven while still growing rapidly.

• Name:
• Expected trade date: July 18, 2019
• IPO price range: $15 to $17
• Crunchbase News coverage

Born in 2005, Phreesia’s march to the public markets is long even by today’s standards. And the company’s small-ish revenue base and moderate growth make it an odd duck amidst other venture-backed offerings. All the same, Phreesia did raise money from venture capitalists, including , , and others.

You can read the company’s filing or our notes on the document here.

• Name:
• Expected trade date: $16 to $18
• IPO price range: July 19, 2019
• Crunchbase News coverage

This customer-experienced focused SaaS shop is pretty much our speed in terms of what it does, and how it does it. Selling software on a recurring basis with some consulting revenue mixed in is our standard fare.

So, : Medallia’s revenue grew from $70.7 million to $93.6 million in the most recent quarter, including revenue growth from $55.6 million to $71.7 million for its subscription business. That works out to an aggregate revenue gain of 32.4 percent, and a subscription revenue gain of 29.0 percent.

Happily, Medallia’s operating and net losses are trending down, leaving the firm near break-even on both counts in its most recent quarter. The results represent a dramatic improvement over its year-ago results for the quarter ending April 30. In that period the firm was smaller but lost around ten times as much on a net basis.

And that’s that. Expect more from us as the week continues. !

Illustration: .

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This week filed an with a pricing range, bringing the IPO of the New York-based healthcare technology provider closer to execution.

Phreesia, born in 2005, has raised a according to Crunchbase data, including that took place in November 2017. We’re unsure of what price the company was valued at during the 2017 transaction, but we can get a handle on what the company is hoping for, in valuation terms, with its IPO.

According to Phreesia’s S-1/A filing, the firm is targeting a $15 to $17 per-share range for its debut. Given its provided post-IPO share count, the firm is targeting a $528 million to $598 million valuation interval.

That is, quite obviously, not the largest IPO that we’ve seen this year. I would actually hazard that it is one of the smallest. But, not every company filing has to be a decacorn, and not every firm going out needs to be as rich as Slack. Let’s take a quick peek at Phreesia, and just how big it is.

What Phreesia Does

I wasn’t sure, so I went to its filing and read its own words. Here’s how the company kicks off what it sells:

We are a leading provider of comprehensive solutions that transform the healthcare experience by engaging patients in their care and enabling healthcare provider organizations to optimize operational efficiency, improve profitability and enhance clinical care.

That says nothing, of course, but later on, Phreesia notes that it sells a SaaS service called “Phreesia Platform” that deals with “patient intake” and “payments.” That is simple enough.

According to Phreesia’s website, the firm handles $1.4 billion in payments per year, across 70 million “patient intakes” over the same time interval. I presume that the firm doesn’t handle payment for every visit it provides intake for, given that that would value the average medical visit at $20.

Not in America, ladies and gentlemen.

But on the topic of America, one of Phreesia’s abilities, apart from “Patient Activation” and “Analytics and Reports,” is dubbed “Revenue Cycle.” Ah yes, the real circle of life in American healthcare.

Sticking to the topic of money, let’s talk about Phreesia’s own.

Financial Notes

Phreesia is a SaaS-focused company that generates nearly as much money from “payment processing fees” as it does from “subscription and related services.” The company’s total revenue grew from $79.8 million to $100.0 million in its last two fiscal years (ending January 31, 2018 and January 31, 2019, respectively).

In its most recent quarter (ending April 30, 2019), Phreesia put up $28.3 million in revenue, up just under 22 percent compared to the year-ago period. It managed an operating loss of $4.3 million against that sum, which worsened to a net loss of $6.7 million when more expenses were counted. Taking into account other, share-based costs (“Accretion of redeemable preferred stock”) the firm lost a far-sharper $14.6 million in the three-month period.

Turning to self-reported non-GAAP metrics, Phreesia detailed a falling net retention rate (111 percent to 107 percent over its January 2018 and January 2019 fiscal years, respectively), and a decline into negative EBITDA when comparing its most recent quarter to its more-profitable year-ago equivalent. Those numbers are going backwards.

As you can likely infer from the above, Phreesia is a bit of a puzzle. Its modest revenue growth stapled to, depending how you measure them, mild to worrisome losses, are hard to price. Recall that the firm is targeting a price as high as $598 million, which feels high for a firm that is not even growing 25 percent yearly.

So, why are we talking about the company? Because when the market is hot, all sorts of firms try to go out while they can. I’d guess that that is what Phreesia is up to here.

Phreesia is expected to price on July 17 and trade on July 18. More when we have it.

Illustration: .