Flexport Stock: Will Flexport IPO Next Year?

Explore ways to own Flexport stock as the company approaches its IPO date

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Notable Flexport News

10/02/2024: Flexport Cuts More Jobs
01/19/2024: Flexport Raises $260 Million from Shopify
10/27/2023: Flexport in Talks to Buy Convoy’s Technology
10/17/2023: Petersen Sets Long Timetable for Profits, Public Offering
Older news…

About Flexport

Flexport is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) global logistics company that helps business customers manage their international shipping and supply chains.

It’s the leading cloud software and data analytics platform provider for global trade. 

The software empowers more than 10,000 customers to track global supply chains, including ocean, air, and trucking, to make data-driven decisions and streamline businesses. 

Founder Ryan Peterson recognized that international shipping processes were stuck in another decade and saw an opportunity to disrupt the trillion-dollar freight industry.

Flexport was part of the Y Combinator W14 batch of early-stage startups and is a member of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list.

This video helps to explain what the company does and how it benefits its customers. 

 

Ownership

The Flexport shareholders include the Founders Ryan Peterson and David Peterson, early investors (venture capital firms), prominent public companies, and employees.

Flexport has raised more than $2.2 billion since its founding in 2013. The most recent raise was a Series E round of $1 billion from Andreessen Horowitz, Michael Dell’s MSD Partners, and Shopify in February 2022. 

Other prominent venture capital investors include Y Combinator, Founders Fund, DST Global, Shopify, Wells Fargo, Bloomberg Beta, Softbank, and GV.

Valuation

The Flexport valuation is $8.4 billion based on the Series E round completed in February 2022. We’ve seen lower implied valuations in 2023 and 2024 due to management uncertainty and layoffs. 

Monitor activity at the pre-IPO marketplace Hiive for the most recent transaction data and Flexport stock price. 

IPO Potential

The Flexport IPO date is currently unknown. However, CEO Ryan Peter offered some insight to the Wall Street Journal in October 2023: 

That’s kind of the expectation when you raise venture-capital money—eventually you have to go public or sell the business. We never want to sell Flexport, [so the goal is to become a] profitable public company that throws off lots of cash that can be a darling of Wall Street.

He added the company plans to become profitable by the end of 2025, suggesting an IPO would not occur until late 2025 or 2026.

Bookmark this page for the latest Flexport stock and IPO news.

How to Buy Flexport Stock

It’s usually a challenge to acquire shares of a stock that are not yet trading on the public markets. 

However, there are a few ways to own Flexport stock sooner than later. It’s now easier than ever with the ARK Venture Fund.

1. Access Flexport pre-IPO

As of early October 2022, the ARK Venture Fund, led by Cathie Wood, has purchased a stake in Flexport. 

All U.S.-based investors are now eligible to invest in the fund for a $500 minimum investment. 

You will only own a small portion of the company. The fund is a diversified way to own a pool of pre-IPO startups. You’ll gain access to several high-growth companies with one purchase. 

If you are an accredited investor, there may be additional options. 

Founders, early employees, and investors are often in a difficult predicament. They own valuable shares of a company that doesn’t trade publicly. 

These shareholders might have multi-million dollar net worths because of their stock holdings, but the stock is not liquid because it doesn’t trade on an exchange. 

Multiple platforms have evolved to allow these individuals to liquidate their holding before the IPO.

Some of the more prominent sites include Hiive, Linqto, EquityZen, and Forge. Learn more about pre-IPO investing here. The author has seen evidence of share availability on multiple pre-IPO platforms. 

These sites bring liquidity to an otherwise illiquid asset. Accredited investors (those with invested assets > $1,000,000) may join these sites and attempt to buy company shares when they become available. 

The shares are only offered to accredited investors because the company’s financials are not publicly filed with regulators yet, increasing the investors’ risk. 

High demand for high-profile companies will lower your chances of acquiring shares.

2. Buy Shopify Stock

Shopify acquired the last-mile delivery startup Deliverr, which Shopify purchased in May 2022 for $2.1 billion and became its logistics unit.

But a year later, Shopify sold its logistic unit to Flexport. The agreement stated that Shopify received stock of approximately 13% equity interest in Flexport, adding to a previous ownership stake.

Shopify ownership of Flexport is “in the high teens”.

Therefore, retail investors can buy Shopify stock to indirectly own Flexport stock.

Buy Shopify with any commission-free broker. I recommend TradeStation.

3. Buy Flexport stock during the Flexport IPO through a broker

Ambitious investors can position themselves to invest in the Flexport IPO once it arrives.  

Your chances of getting IPO shares depend on four factors:

• IPO demand
• Your broker and eligibility
• Your assets under management (AUM) at the broker
• Propensity to flip shares

As IPO demand increases, the chances of receiving IPO shares decrease. Therefore, the IPOs that are most interesting to the masses are the hardest to access. 

Most online brokers do not offer IPO shares. Check directly to see if yours does, or look at our list of best brokers for IPO investing. 

Legacy brokers like Fidelity and Charles Schwab have minimum eligibility requirements and penalties for flipping shares (selling shortly after the IPO). 

But even if eligible, the brokers must sub-allocate whatever limited shares they receive from the IPO underwriters.

This process is non-transparent, but priority is likely given to the wealthiest investors first. 

For individual investors without a high net worth, ClickIPO and its partner broker TradeStation is the most likely chance to participate in IPOs. 

Separately, Robinhood and the online broker SoFi Invest have also started offering IPO access to customers. 

Learn more about the best brokers for IPO investing. 

Joining a broker that offers access to IPOs does not guarantee a share allocation, especially in high-demand IPOs. You are probably better off waiting for the company to start trading after the IPO. 

4. Buy Flexport stock after the Flexport IPO

Since acquiring IPO shares is almost always challenging for individual investors, the easiest way to own Flexport stock is to wait for the IPO to complete. 

Realistically, unless your brokerage account is worth more than $1 million and your broker regularly receives IPO allocations, you are unlikely to get in on high-demand IPOs. 

In some cases, patient investors can buy the stock at or below the IPO price. This is not always true.

The Airbnb IPO, for example, soared and never looked back. But Uber, which many predicted to rise steeply, actually fell on the IPO date.

Spending significant effort to acquire IPO shares may not be worth it in the end. You may also spend time and effort to obtain shares but only receive a small allocation, limiting upside gain. 

Though IPOs can provide one-day gains north of 20%, even up to 100% in rare cases (such as Airbnb and Doordash), the most significant gains will come during the decade following the IPO if the company is genuinely disruptive.

Take, for example, Netflix, Amazon, or Tesla. You could have bought the stocks years after the IPO and still experienced gains of more than 1,000%

If you’re an investor who wants to buy Flexport stock for the long term, consider opening a position after the IPO and averaging down if the stock falls. 

Short-term traders may angle to acquire IPO shares and hope for a short-term pop.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Flexport Stock Publicly Traded?

No. Flexport is privately owned.

What is the Flexport Stock Price?

Since Flexport is not publicly traded on a stock exchange, there is no public Flexport stock price yet.

Private stock price information is becoming more available and reliable based on pre-IPO marketplace data and other sources. 

However, the stock price is only the value of one share. Like public companies, the underlying valuation metrics, revenue, profitability, and market sentiment toward private companies are more significant factors than the share price.

What is the Flexport Stock Symbol?

Flexport has not yet submitted public filings to the SEC. Therefore, we don’t know what the Flexport stock symbol will be. 

We can speculate. Here are a few suggestions that appear to be available in the U.S.

• FP
• FLX
• FLXP
• PORT
• FPRT

FLEX is already claimed by Flex Ltd., a Singapore-based engineering and manufacturing company. 

Can you Invest in Flexport Equity Today? 

Yes.

The stock does not trade publicly. But you can own a portion of the company via the ARK Venture Fund. 

Will there be a Flexport SPAC Merger?

A SPAC is a special purpose acquisition company, also known as a blank check company. They are shell companies designed to help established businesses go public without a traditional IPO. 

The SPAC company merges with the established company and takes on the established company’s name. It’s also known as a reverse merger. 

At this stage, given the number of prominent venture capital firms holding equity in Flexport and its size, the author anticipates Flexport is more likely to conduct a traditional IPO versus a SPAC merger. 

Where is the Flexport S-1 Filing?

The Flexport S-1 filing is not yet available. Once it is public, we’ll post it here.

Startups often file their S-1s confidentially a few months before the public release. News of a confidential filing will help determine the Flexport IPO date. 

You can find a real-time SEC feed of the latest IPO filings from companies on the recent S-1 filings page.

Flexport News Archive

10/12/2023: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce
09/27/2023: Flexport fires CFO, HR chief departs
09/14/2023: Flexport’s Revenue Dropped 70% in First Half of 2023
09/07/2023: Petersen slams successor and rescinds offers
09/06/2023: Flexport CEO Dave Clark resigns
07/10/2023: Ryan Petersen Is VC Firm Founders Fund’s Newest Partner
06/28/2023: Dave Clark From Amazon Logistics to Freight Markets
05/04/2023: Shopify offloads logistics business to Flexport
02/09/2023: Flexport App Launches on Shopify
01/11/2023: Flexport to lay off 20% of its global workforce
11/02/2022: Logistics startup Flexport plans hiring spree
10/20/2022: Flexport Capital Secures $200 Million Credit Facility from KKR
06/13/2022: Why Flexport’s CEO Replaced Himself With an Amazon Exec
06/08/2022: Amazon’s Consumer Chief Dave Clark Joins Flexport As CEO
05/17/2022: Flexport Ranked #1 on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 List
03/08/2022: $3 billion company is trying to fix the supply-chain crisis
02/07/2022: Flexport raises nearly $1 billion in funding
02/07/2022: Flexport Is Silicon Valley’s Solution To The Supply Chain Mess
11/30/2021: Flexport Founder: Supply Chain Problems Won’t Be Solved Anytime Soon
11/27/2021: Shipping is broken. Flexport’s CEO has a plan to fix the supply
10/08/2021: Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen tells Cramer the shipping backlog is not improving
06/04/2021: What the Global Shipping Crunch Means for Small Business
05/25/2021: CNBC Disruptor 50: Flexport
05/24/2021: Sea change: global freight sails out of the digital dark ages
02/25/2021: Founder’s Field Guide – Interview with Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport
02/04/2020: Layoffs hit Flexport, another SoftBank-backed startup worth $3.2B
02/21/2019: Flexport Secures $1 Billion in Funding Led by SoftBank Vision Fund

Read more: SaaS Startups Going Public