Austin-based solar equipment company FTC Solar Inc. plans to raise as much as $423 million in its initial public offering, according to an April 19 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The company said it plans to sell 18.4 million shares at $18 to $20 per share. That could give the company a $1.6 billion valuation.
Underwriters would be able to purchase up to 2.7 million additional shares.
The new paperwork didn’t set a date that the stock, to be listed as “FTCI,” will begin trading on the Nasdaq.
FTC, founded in 2017, makes a solar tracking system using software, engineering and hardware to maximize energy generation. Its primary branded product is the Voyager Tracker. The company logged $187 million in revenue last year, with a net loss of nearly $16 million. FTC grew from 64 full-time employees in 2019 to 178 as of the end of 2020. While the company is based in Austin, it also has a training and tech development site in Aurora, Colo., as well as some sales and support staff working remotely around the globe.
The new filing is an update to one filed at the end of March. The company noted it recently entered a stock repurchase agreement with some employees and stockholders. It plans to use about $181 million of its IPO raise for general purposes, including acquisitions, and about $140 million to buy around 7.9 million shares of its common stock. The company said it had $109 million in executed contracts at the end of 2020, and, so far this year, it has secured another $227 million in contracts.
FTC aims to take the traditional IPO route to the public markets, eschewing the trend of going public through a special purpose acquisition company (although SPACs have dramatically slowed this month). The last Austin-area business to go public via a traditional IPO was Bumble in February, preceded by biotech company Shattuck Labs in October.
