The IPO Buzz: DoubleDown (DDI) Returns in the Lull Before Labor Day

DoubleDown Interactive (DDI proposed), the South Korean mobile gaming app company, is rolling its digital dice this week. The company’s deal is the only traditional IPO on the IPO Calendar this week – usually one of the slowest weeks for the IPO market in the countdown to the Labor Day holiday weekend.  One tiny NASDAQ uplift deal is also on tap this week.

Most of the buzz is about the IPO pipeline, which has been building up nicely during the IPO market’s traditional August break.  Notable new filings include Dutch Bros Coffee (BROS), an Oregon-based chain of drive-through coffee shops; EngageSmart (ESMT proposed), a Braintree, Massachusetts-based provider of SaaS customer engagement solutions for small and medium businesses and non-profits and large enterprises; Sovos Brands (SOVO proposed) , a Louisville, Colorado-based company that owns fast-growing unique brands, including Rao’s Homemade pasta sauces and noosa yoghurt (this brand spells “yogurt” as “yoghurt”); Sportradar Group AG (SRAD proposed) , a Switzerland-based company that says it is the No. 1 provider of data, content and other products and services to bookmakers and others in the sports betting industry, and Toast (TOST proposed), a cloud-based tech platform that provides mobile and digital payment solutions for the restaurant industry..

Warby Parker (WRBY proposed) made a splash last week with its filing for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The pioneer in online sales of eyeglasses and contact lenses has selected Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Allen & Co. as the financial advisors for its direct listing.

Light Week in the Rear-View Mirror

In the past week, four small deals were priced plus three SPACs to produce about $465 million in proceeds. Of those four small deals, two were micro-cap NASDAQ uplifts from the OTCQB tier of the OTC market – authID.ai (Ipsidy) (AUID), $10 million, and Biotricity (BTCY), $15 million – and two were tiny unit offerings of common stock and warrants –  RenovoRx (RNXT), $16.7 million, and SeqLL (SQL) , $13 million. The three special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deals together raised a total of $410 million: Cascadia Acquisition Corp. (CCAIU), $150 million; Minority Equality Opportunities Corp. (MEOAU), $110 million, and Springwater Special Solutions Corp. (SWSSU), $150 million.

Meanwhile, just two deals are on the IPO runway this week. Both are set for pricing Monday night, to start trading Tuesday. Some IPO professionals also expect a handful of SPACs to get priced this week, based on the flow of filings at the SEC’s window.

Pricing Monday night for Tuesday trading:

DoubleDown Interactive (DDI proposed) is back on track to price its IPO of 6.32 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $18 to $20. The deal would raise $120.08 million, if priced at the mid-point.

The South Korean company upsized its IPO and changed underwriters in an SEC filing on July 20, 2021, which came just five days after DoubleDown officially withdrew the IPO that had been postponed in late June.

B. Riley Securities is the sole book-runner. CBRE and Northland Capital Markets are the co-managers.

DoubleDown Interactive, headquartered in the Gangnam Finance Center in Seoul, says its mission is to become one of the world’s leading global gaming companies. The company creates multi-format interactive games for casual players on mobile and web platforms.

“Our flagship game, DoubleDown Casino, has been in the top 20 grossing mobile games annually on the Apple App Store since 2016, according to App Annie ,” the prospectus says.

Focus Universal (FCUV proposed) is a NASDAQ uplift from the OTCQB tier of the OTC market. This deal consists of only 2 million shares at an assumed offering price of $5.00 each.

Boustead Securities is the sole book-runner.

Focus Universal, based in Ontario, California, says it has developed “four fundamental disruptive proprietary technologies which we believe solve the most fundatmental problems plaguing the Internet of Things (“IoT”) industry by:

-Increasing overall chip integration by shifting it to the device level;

-Creating a faster 5G cellular technology by using ultra-narrowband technology;

-Leveraging ultra-narrowband power line communication (“PLC”) technology, and

-User Interface Machine auto generation technology.

Labor Day Week

The IPO Calendar is blank for the week of Sept. 6, 2021, which starts with the U.S. holiday of Labor Day. The U.S. stock markets will be closed that day, which marks the end of summer. It’s possible that some deals may land on the calendar for pricing during this four-day work week, depending on the traffic at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s filing window.

Stay tuned.

(For more information about these companies, please click the hyperlinks, which will take you to the IPO profiles on IPOScoop.com.)

(Never trade on proposed symbols. You might wind up owning something on the OTC Bulletin Board.)

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

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