Ibotta goes public on the NYSE

Denver, Colo.-based digital marketing company Ibotta launched its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, selling 6.56 million shares at $88 apiece and raising over $577.3 million.

Shares are traded on the exchange under the ticker symbol IBTA.

The share price came in higher than anticipated, coming in above the initially projected range of $76 to $84.

The stock opened at $117 and hit a low of $96 over the course of its first day on the exchange.

Ibotta CEO Bryan Leach spoke with Supermarket News on Thursday, a few hours after the launch, saying that “overwhelming demand” enabled the Walmart-backed company to expand the IPO.

“We issued another million shares to try and meet that demand,” Leach said in the interview. “We were able to price not only at the top of the range, but actually above the range which was another indication that even after we upsized the round by over a million shares, it was still many, many times oversubscribed and trading above the opening price.”

Ibotta offers digital ads for grocery and other retail operations through its own smartphone app, but the company also partners with the biggest players in the grocery business, such as Walmart, Dollar General, and Family Dollar, among others.

“I think the validation of having Walmart as a partner and having not only No. 1 and No. 2 in the dollar channel, but working with Kroger you know, the largest pure-play grocer to power their cashback program, these are all points of encouragement and validation,” he said.

Those partnerships enable Ibotta to offer ads within the retailers’ own custom apps, without customer awareness of the company’s involvement. Customers who log into the Walmart app or use Walmart’s online portal, for instance, will see results alerting them that there is a “manufacturer offer available” and can receive the discount without having to sign up on Ibotta or download the company’s own app.

“You don't have to be a plus member, and you can literally just check the box and  you're on your way. And then if you shop in a store, there's an opportunity to claim your Walmart cash by scanning a QR code at the checkout. It's the first time there's ever been kind of a customer ID at checkout at Walmart, you check in at checkout,” Leach told Supermarket News. “But there are millions of people who are now able to access the rewards content, and they may earn Dollar General cash, they may earn Walmart cash, they may earn Kroger cash, they don't earn any money on an Ibotta account.”

He said it’s a win for retailers and for Ibotta, because the tech company only gets paid by the grocer once the coupon is redeemed.

“So what we do is allow a brand manager to log in and through a single interface distribute digital promotions to 91% of American households through a network with multiple publishers. And so we're excited about that scale,” he said.