News that blue The apron is selling out to Wonder Group, Marc Lore’s latest, for around $100 million, marking the end of the former startup’s life as a public company.
Blue Apron raised a $135 million Series D in 2015 for its meal kit business before going public in mid-2017 at a valuation of just under $1.9 billion. That figure had fallen to double-digit millions before Wonder agreed to buy it for $13 a share, in cash. The transaction has an equity value of $103 million and represents a steep premium over the company’s previous value: approximately 77% above its “30-day volume-weighted average price” according to a statement, and 137% above above its value at the end of trading on Thursday.
How Blue Apron got to where it is today is an interesting story that we should trace from the company’s initial public offering to the present day.
Rewind the clock
At the time Blue Apron went public, TechCrunch was impressed with its growing scale:
The company is showing pretty incredible growth. Blue Apron said it generated nearly $800 million in revenue in 2016, up from $341 million in 2015. For the first quarter of this year, Blue Apron said it generated $245 million in revenue, up from $172 million in the first quarter of last year.
However, after targeting an IPO price range of between $15 and $17 per share, the company later scaled back its ambitions to $10 to $11 per share. Blue Apron sold shares in its debut at $10 per unit, and barely defended that price during its first day of trading.
