Successful IPO and NYSE Debut for Medallia

Silicon Valley customer experience feedback specialist Medallia has made a successful debut on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $326m from its IPO and then opening $34 a share, a 62% premium for investors.

Medallia sold 15.5m shares at $21 in the IPO, announced just a month ago, and had already made $325m in private funding. The firm says it is looking for flexibility, working capital and options for acquisitions and investments. Key product Medallia Experience Cloud enables brands to obtain a big-picture view of the customer feedback they receive online, aggregating sentiment data from surveys, contact centers, social media and review sites such as TripAdvisor.

Revenue was up 20% to $313.6m in the fiscal year ended April 30th 2019. Losses also rose, by 16.8% to $82.2m, but the company managed to slash this to just $2.6m in the three months to end April 2019.

Medallia's opening compares well with the $180m that high profile DIY research firm Survey Monkey raised from an IPO last August, but less so with the $US 8bn in cash paid for fellow 'experience management' company Qualtrics by business software giant SAP last November.

The firm, which last August hired Leslie Stretch (pictured) as President and CEO, announced last month it would acquire Tel Aviv-based behavioral analytics platform Cooladata.

Web site: www.medallia.com .