Truecaller targets to raise $116 Mn in Stockholm IPO

Swedish mobile phone directory and caller identification platform Truecaller is looking to raise around $116 million through a public listing on Nasdaq Stockholm. 

The company on Wednesday said it was planning to list its Class B shares on Nasdaq Stockholm by the end of the fourth quarter of this year, depending on market conditions. This could take the company’s valuation to around $3 billion according to media reports.

The offering will create opportunities for growth, increase its financial flexibility and broaden its ownership base, the company said. Truecaller’s board believes that a public listing will increase awareness of the company and its operations as well as enhance its profile with investors and other stakeholders. 

“In addition, the offering allows existing shareholders to sell a portion of their current shareholding of class B shares and thereby create a liquid market for the shares,” Truecaller said in a statement. 

Truecaller had hired Odd Bolin as its new CFO in January this year to prepare for an initial public offering. 

Class B shares are a share class of common stock of a corporation, but often with fewer or limited voting rights compared to Class A shares. After the listing, the co-founders of the company, Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam will control a majority of the company’s voting power as a result of their ownership of Truecaller’s high-vote Class A shares.

According to Truecaller, Nasdaq Stockholm's listing committee has made the assessment that the company fulfils the applicable listing requirements for a listing on the exchange. 

“If Truecaller submits an application for admission to trading of the Company’s Class B shares on Nasdaq Stockholm, Nasdaq Stockholm will approve such application, provided that certain conditions are fulfilled, including the distribution requirement,” the company added. 

Truecaller is backed by prominent investors including Sequoia Capital India, Atomico, Kleiner Perkins, and OpenOcean. 

The company reported operating revenues of Rs 421.6 crore in 2020 up from Rs 162.8 crore in 2019. The growth was driven by the inherent viral growth of the company’s user base, steady improvements in the platform, and enhancements in the company’s business model monetisation, Truecaller said. 

Carnegie Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Citigroup Global are the bookrunners for the Truecaller IPO. 

India is a critical market for Truecaller. As of October 2020, 75% of the service’s daily active users and 92% of its monthly active users came from India. In May 2020, the company had revealed that 720,000 of its 1.2 million Premium subscribers were from India. 

Besides caller ID and spam blocking, Truecalller also has features of flash-messaging, call-recording, chat and voice over the internet. In March 2021, the company had discontinued its UPI platform after failing to gain a sizable market share in a sea of competing UPI applications. The company however continues offering instant loans through third party lenders.