Truecaller, a Swedish mobile phone directory and caller identification service, has announced its intention to list its Class B shares on Nasdaq Stockholm. Depending on market conditions, the listing is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2021, claims the company.
Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam, co-founders of Truecaller, intend to control a majority of the company’s voting power through ownership of Class A shares. However, Mamedi did not disclose the ratio of voting rights between both classes of shares.
According to the company, “The Offering is expected to consist of existing Class B shares, offered by certain existing shareholders, and new Class B shares issued by the Company that are expected to provide Truecaller with gross proceeds (before deduction of costs related to the Offering) of approximately SEK 1B (approx $116.3M or €98.4M)”
The company plans to use the net proceeds “for general corporate purposes and to provide strategic flexibility for opportunistic acquisitions.”
Alan Mamedi, CEO of Truecaller, comments, “One of our objectives this year has been to prepare Truecaller for an IPO. Thanks to the strong feedback that we’ve received from potential investors, it feels very exciting to take the next step in this process. Even though we are twelve years into our incredible journey, we believe that this is just the beginning, and we have a clear strategy to continue to grow and develop our services and products.”
Secured €83.4M funding
Founded in 2009, Truecaller is backed by prominent investors, including Sequoia Capital India, Atomico, Kleiner Perkins, and OpenOcean. So far, the company has raised $98.6M (approx €83.4M).
Based out of Stockholm, Truecaller is a global platform for verifying contacts and blocking unwanted calls and messages. The company which has been profitable has about 280M monthly active users and earns revenue through advertising and subscription services.
Since its launch, the Truecaller app has been downloaded half a billion times and has identified and blocked 30 billion unwanted calls. According to the company, it has built an extensive database of around 5.7 billion unique phone identities.
Appointed new chairman
Earlier this month, TrueCaller appointed Bing Gordon, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as the new chairman, replacing Nami Zarringhalam. Bing Gordon worked as a chief creative officer at Electronic Arts and special advisor to the board of Amazon.
Talking about the IPO, Bing Gordon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Truecaller, comments: “To list the company and broaden the shareholder base is a natural next step for its development. The Board of Directors is proud to have supported the founders and the employees who are developing the platform to help more people and companies focus on who and what’s important. I am certain that Truecaller is just getting started.”
Increase in operating revenue growth
Truecaller has exhibited strong growth, with its operating revenue growing to SEK 492M (approx €48.4M) in 2020, up from SEK 190M (approx €18.7M) in 2018, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate of 61 per cent for the period.
Operating revenue in H1 2021 reached SEK 425M (approx €41.8M), an increase of 151 per cent compared with the first half of 2020. The company achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of 34 per cent in H1 2021, which is an increase of 45 per cent points compared to an adjusted EBITDA margin of -11 per cent for H1 2020.
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