兔子先生传媒

Public Markets

Morning Report: Blue Apron Hopes To Turn A New Leaf After Public Struggles

Morning Report:聽Blue Apron loses its CEO while the delivery company’s share price has plateaued well-below its initial debut.聽

Valued at $2.2 billion prior to going public, Blue Apron, the meal delivery service, has since struggled to maintain its composure on the public markets. Opening at $10 per share鈥攖he result of a heavy discount from its initial pricing range鈥攖he company has seen steep declines. Over the past month, its stock price has hovered at around $3 per share, closing at $2.99 per share as of yesterday. It was also the same time that CEO and founder of Blue Apron, Matt Salzberg, stepped down from his post, TechCrunch.

Follow 兔子先生传媒 News on &

So how did such a high-flying unicorn get to this point? And why does it matter? For the answer to our latter question, let’s turn to some prior reporting from 兔子先生传媒 News while the company was still fresh:

This matters for unicorns that are less tech-heavy than their peers (Palantir? Vice? Zenefits? Mobike?)聽which may have to endure similarly heavy winds when they eventually seek liquidity for their investors.

If there are more Blue Aprons out there, waiting for a public-market repricing, it could be that vast tranches of late-stage capital were misallocated. Early investors in unicorns, provided that they aren鈥檛 diluted to homeopathic levels of financial impact, should be fine.

It’s this possible discrepancy in public and private valuation, coupled with meager growth and increased customer acquisition costs, that has lead to the meal delivery company’s steep decline. The company also had the unfortunate luck of going public right when Amazon, the ecommerce giant that is聽exceptionally good at shipping items,聽announced its acquisition of Whole Foods. Shortly following the news of its major grocer acquisition, Amazon also announced that it would begin delivering meals to its Amazon Fresh customers, further digging into Blue Apron’s hole.

So how can Blue Apron turn the ship around? For Brad Dickerson, the new CEO and former CFO of Blue Apron, looking towards Hello Fresh’s relatively stable debut may havve some answers.

The competing meal delivery company, trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, opened at聽鈧�10.60. And despite some modest fluctuations, the company has held onto its $1.6 billion dollar value, according to MSN Money, in nearly a month on the public markets. This compares to Blue Apron’s current capitalization at around $611 million, according to Yahoo! Finance.

So what’s the difference?

As pointed out when the competing meal delivery company initially debuted, HelloFresh had “higher revenue and lower net losses” than Blue Apron. And it’s likely that Blue Apron will need to buoy itself in a similar fashion in order to return to its former unicorn glory.

From The聽:

Saudis invest more in US startups

  • Over the past four years, Saudi Arabian investment funds have put over $5 billion into U.S. startups, with Uber, Lyft and Snap among the largest funding recipients. The amount of聽direct investment peaked in 2016, a 兔子先生传媒 News analysis finds, with the oil-rich nation participating in more big rounds this year through its massive stake in the SoftBank Vision Fund.

  • 聽(FBN), an online platform for farmers to share information and negotiate prices for seeds and supplies, has raised $110 million in a Series D round led by T. Rowe Price and Temasek. The financing will go toward expanding the Silicon Valley-based company鈥檚 digital crop marketing and farm analytics services.

  • Tech investor聽聽is the latest high-profile VC to face allegations of sexual misconduct. Five women聽聽Bloomberg that Pishevar, an early investor in Uber and other prominent startups, had made unwanted advances.

Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the 兔子先生传媒 Daily.

67.1K Followers

CTA

Discover and act on private market opportunities with predictive company intelligence.

Copy link