News of a confidential filing with the SEC made by SVMK Inc., the parent company of SurveyMonkey, have the market abuzz with rumors that the survey company could finally be making its market debut. While SurveyMonkey was once-upon-a-time expected to have an IPO back in 2015, it appears that the company is finally gearing up to make a big splash on the market, though investors will have to be patient for more details.
While we don’t know much about SurveyMonkey’s potential market debut as of now, a review of the survey company’s performance to date will give many investors a myriad of reasons to look forward to its potential IPO.
SurveyMonkey is no longer shy
Back in 2015, many expected SurveyMonkey to make its market debut thanks to the positive press the company was enjoying as one of the internet’s leading survey providers. According to an interview with the company’s CEO, however, the time simply wasn’t right for SurveyMonkey to make its debut. 2018 appears rife with opportunity, however, and it’s now safe to say that the company is expected to make its market debut by the end of the year. So, what’s changed since then?
First and foremost, SurveyMonkey continues to command a great deal of respect for its position at the head of the online surveying market. The company has some 3 million active daily users, for instance, and is still relied upon by a tremendous amount of businesses to collect feedback from customers through its online polling services. Easy and popular to use, SurveyMonkey collects over 100,000 responses every single week, according to the company’s website.
Many in the market are already salivating over SurveyMonkey’s potential IPO thanks to the immense size it’s likely to be, too; the company has been valued at more than $2 billion recently, after all, and has likely only grown since then. As recently as 2014, the company garnered some $250 million in equity financing, illustrating that it intends to remain in the marketplace for some time regardless of whether it will be debuting to the public or not.
Before investors find themselves totally convinced regarding SurveyMonkey, however, they’ll want to gain access to the financial information typically made public before a market debut. Potential shareholders will have to be patient, however. The confidential nature of the filing made with the SEC reveals virtually no financial details to the public.
SurveyMonkey would have one of the year’s biggest IPOs
Despite the relative information-drought we’re currently suffering, it’s safe to say that any market debut made by SurveyMonkey would doubtlessly be one of the year’s biggest. Tech companies like Spotify and Dropbox are scooping up tremendous amounts of media attention surrounding their forthcoming debuts, but SurveyMonkey’s arrival on the open market will nonetheless seize headlines and make a huge splash, so don’t be caught off guard when the survey company eventually reveals its cards.
Perhaps the company’s secret to success is how widely available it makes it services; after all, you can actually use SurveyMonkey’s basic services for free to buy YouTube subscribers or gain a social media following on Twitter or Instagram. Businesses looking to get more intimate information on survey respondents can pay, too, meaning the company has a little bit of something for everyone. Despite the fact that it’s offering free services, however, SurveyMonkey is ultimately banking on the fact that more and more businesses will subscribe to its premium services, which give surveyors customized branding options and includes a range of unlimited responses.
It’s not unreasonable that SurveyMonkey would use some of the capital it gleams from a successful IPO to help consolidate its market share, either. The company has shown an interest in acquiring competitors in the past, such as when it purchased its rival Fluidware for some $20 million a few years ago. That move was done to help expand the company’s business tool offerings, which it seems to be focusing on more and more as a means to generate additional revenue.
If SurveyMonkey can continue to scoop up business partners with its business tool offerings, we should expect its daily active userbase to continue growing. Companies are finding data to be one of the most important tools on today’s market, and are relying on survey companies like SurveyMonkey to provide them with need-to-know information directly from the mouths of consumers. Given that the company seems to have mastered the art of collecting useful data from survey respondents, it’s not unfair to say that SurveyMonkey will continue to be a leader in the market of consumer data for years to come. Expect big things from SurveyMonkey’s forthcoming debut, which will doubtlessly be one of the biggest IPOs of this year. While the confidential filing hasn’t told us much about the company’s inner finances, we know enough to expect a huge splash from SurveyMonkey’s IPO.