GreenSky, an Atlanta-based digital lending platform, looks to raise close to $700m at a $4.2B valuation in its IPO, with shares priced between $21 and $23, and Wall Street is watching to see if they can turn the tide of bad luck for public lenders.
Blue skies for GreenSky
Founded in 2006, the lending platform initially made its name as a lender to help people pay for home improvement projects, then diversified into helping fund elective healthcare procedures (which, if you think about it, is kind of like “home improvement” for your bod).
According to Bloomberg, the company’s made some improvements of their own: They did $326m in revenue last year (up from $264m in 2016), and brought in net income of $139m in 2017 (up from $124m the previous year).
But, lending company IPOs haven’t been doing so hot
According to WSJ, rising defaults among borrowers and increased competition have kneecapped the public lending market in recent years. And, as Axios points out, the last 2 VC-backed “unicorns,” LendingClub and OnDeck Capital, both “flopped post-IPO.”
In other words, this will be a huge test for GreenSky — and for their big Wall Street backers Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, who are both hoping GreenSky will be an outlier in the volatile industry.