As the IPO market warms, Accolade targets billion-dollar debut

As the IPO market heats up, one offering slipped beneath our radar. This morning, then, we'll catch up on Accolade's initial public offering and what its proposed pricing may tell us about the state of the IPO market.

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Catching everyone back up, Accolade sells its service to employers who in turn offer it to their employees; the company's tech provides a portal for individuals to better understand, navigate and utilize the health care system and their workplace benefits," Accolade states in its S-1 filings.

The firm goes on to point out that the U.S. health care system is complex, which puts significant strain on consumers." Correct. Its solution? To help consumers make better, data-driven health care and benefits-related decisions" through its service by selling a platform to support and influence consumer decision-making that is built on a foundation of mission-driven people and purpose-built technology."

Yeah.

Regardless of that verbiage, Accolade's business has proven sufficiently attractive to allow the firm to file to go public in late February, around when Procore filed. Both companies delayed their offerings, but Procore raised more private capital, a $150 million round that values it at around $5 billion. Accolade, to our knowledge, did not raise more funds. So, its IPO is back on and today we have its pricing interval.

Let's unpack its pricing range, write some notes on its recent financial results and try to figure out how ambitious Accolade is being in terms of its expected valuation as it counts down to trading publicly.

Accolade's S-1/A

According to Accolade's June 24th S-1/A, the company expects a $19 to $21 per-share IPO price range. The company intends to sell 8.75 million shares in its debut, not counting a 1,312,500 share greenshoe option offered to its underwriters. Discounting the extra shares, Accolade would raise between $166.3 million to $183.8 million in its debut; inclusive of greenshoe shares, the total fundraise grows to a range of $191.2 million to $211.3 million.