Bill.com founder and CEO René Lacerte and a team of staff rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange this morning, as Bill.com went public, trading under the ticker symbol BILL. the company offered 9,823,529 shares of its common stock at $22 per share.
The initial share price is higher than the $16 to $18 the app-maker was targeting, and as of publication the price has surged to approximately $35. The offering is expected to close on Dec. 16, 2019, subject to customary closing conditions.
Bill.com makes a billing and payments app enabled by artificial intelligence that's popular amongst accountants. Despite disclosing a net loss of $7.3 million for its fiscal year ending June 30, and a $7.2 million loss the previous fiscal year, the Palo Alto, California-based company has now sold 9.82 million shares, raising $216 million and giving it a valuation of about $1.6 billion. Part of this blockbuster showing is the fact that revenue for the company did increase $108.4 million from $64.9 million during the same timeframe as the net losses.
The strong showing for the IPO speaks to the promise of AI, which is no longer just a promise. The capabilities of the technology are now delivering smarter automation and new tasks accountants couldn’t previously trust technology to take care of.
For instance, earlier this year, Bill.com released a business payments platform that uses AI for end-to-end financial workflow automation. The platform centers around an intelligent virtual assistant that handles invoices automatically, eliminating manual data entry and offering new and faster payment options like international payments and virtual cards.
Bill.com executives are observing a quiet period following the IPO and have no comment at this time.
