- Healthcare payments company Waystar began trading on the Nasdaq on Friday.
- The stock opened at $21 per share after the company priced its IPO at $21.50.
- Waystar reported revenue of $224.8 million for the quarter ended March 31, up 18% from the same period a year ago.
Healthcare payment software vendor Waystar Inc. priced its IPO at the middle of its expected range, causing its shares to fall about 3% when it debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday.
The company’s shares began trading at $21 a share, below its IPO price of $21.50 a share that closed on Thursday. Waystar said in May it expected the stock price to range from $20 to $23 a share.
The IPO market has been largely stagnant since the second half of 2021, when a long bull market turned and investors began to worry about a weakening economy. Few tech companies have been keen to try going public since then, and no digital health companies have gone public in 2023, according to a report from Rock Health.
But the venture-backed tech market as a whole may be starting to recover. Social media platform Reddit, data center connectivity chip vendor Astera Labs and data software management maker Rubrik have all gone public this year. Health tech company Tempus AI also issued a preliminary prospectus this year.
Based on Waystar’s initial public offering price, the company’s market capitalization is approximately $3.5 billion. Its shares trade under the ticker symbol “WAY.”
Waystar, which provides healthcare payment and revenue cycle management tools and processes more than 5 billion payment transactions annually, according to its prospectus. The company was formed in 2017 with the merger of healthcare payment companies NaviCure and ZilMed.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to become a public company because we think it will enable us to gain greater visibility, improve our credibility, improve our capital structure and further invest in areas like generative AI,” Waystar CEO Matt Hawkins said Friday on CNBC’s “The Exchange.”
For the quarter ended March 31, Waystar generated revenue of $224.8 million, up 18% from $191.1 million in the same period a year ago. Waystar reported a quarterly net loss of $15.9 million, down from $10.6 million in the same period a year ago.
The company said it plans to use the proceeds from the offering, which is being led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs and Barclays Plc.
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