The IPO Buzz: ODDITY Tech Splashes into the IPO Pipeline

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In the case of ODDITY Tech Ltd.,  beauty is also seen through the eyes of an ex-Israeli Defense Forces’ intelligence expert. ODDITY Tech (ODD proposed), the Israeli parent of the IL MAKIAGE makeup brand and the SpoiledChild hair- and skin-care brand, filed to go public on Friday night (June 23, 2023) after the U.S. stock market’s close. Some IPO experts believe that the digital beauty platform’s IPO could raise up to $300 million or so. The F-1 filing, however, uses just the $100 million placeholder figure. This is a NASDAQ listing. ODDITY Tech’s dive into the IPO Pipeline made a big splash. A flurry of financial news headlines followed. Some savvy IPO investors took notice as well. The filing offered more evidence, some say, that the recently reawakened IPO market is picking up  momentum just before the second half of the year begins. Friday’s after-the-close excitement provided a nice bookend to the short holiday week. The week began with the filing of terms and the launch of three big IPOs for pricing during the following week (the week of June 26, 2023): Savers Value Village, Inc. (SVV proposed), Kodiak Gas Services, Inc. (KGS proposed) and Fidelis Insurance Holdings, Ltd. (FIHL proposed) Bankers expect to raise $925.5 million from those three big IPOs, if each is priced at the mid-point of its range. The IPO Pipeline took center stage during the week of June 19, 2023. Nothing got priced. GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. (GENK proposed), the parent of the GEN Korean BBQ restaurant chain, pushed its IPO pricing date back to Monday night, June 26, 2023, to trade Tuesday, June 27. On the Digital Beauty Bus But let’s hop back onto the beauty bus for a moment. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Allen & Company LLC are the lead joint book-runners of ODDITY Tech’s IPO. That’s not surprising, considering that ODDITY Tech’s CFO Lindsay Drucker Mann is a former Goldman Sachs investment banker. She was a managing director and the head of consumer and consumer tech equity capital markets at Goldman Sachs, where she worked from February 2005 to September 2021. BofA Securities, Barclays, Truist Securities, JMP Securities and KeyBanc Capital Markets round out the rest of the joint book-running team. ODDITY Tech Ltd., based in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel, was co-founded in 2013 by Oran Holtzman and Shiran Holtzman-Erel. They are brother and sister. Oran Holtzman is the CEO. Shiran Holtzman-Erel is the Chief Product Officer. “It takes an outsider to transform an industry,” Oran Holtzman wrote in the Founder’s Letter, which is included in the prospectus. Niv Price, the company’s chief technology officer (CTO), served in the Intelligence Directorate of the Israeli Defense Forces from October 1995 to December 2015. He earned an M.Sc. in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University. He also holds a master’s degree in public administration (an MPA) from Harvard University. ODDITY made TIME magazine’s TIME100 List of Most Influential Companies for 2023 as a Disruptor. Over 40 percent of ODDITY Tech’s 265 employees are members of its tech team, the prospectus says. “We are a consumer tech platform that is built to transform the global beauty and wellness market,” the company says in the prospectus. The company uses its proprietary technology to develop its beauty brands and sell them directly to consumers, according to the prospectus. “ODDITY, powered by our first brand IL MAKIAGE, has been the fastest-growing global beauty direct-to-consumer platform from 2020 through 2022, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Our first brand, IL MAKIAGE, was also the fastest-growing digital, direct-to-consumer beauty brand in the United States through 2021, which is the latest available data from Digital Commerce 360,” the prospectus says. “Our second brand, SpoiledChild, launched in 2022 with the goal of disrupting the wellness category online, and is scaling even faster than IL MAKIAGE.” IL MAKIAGE, launched in 2018, offers products ranging from foundation and concealer to eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss. The SpoiledChild brand offers health and wellness products for hair and skin. “As of March 31, 2023, we had over 4 million active customers, or customers that made at least one purchase with us within the last 12 months,” ODDITY says in the prospectus. For the 12 months that ended March 31, 2023, ODDITY Tech Ltd. earned net income of $38.3 million on revenue of $399.8 million, according to the prospectus.. Play It Again, Sagimet Biosciences It’s back to the IPO playbook for Sagimet Biosciences (SGMT proposed). The Phase 2 biotech, which is focused on liver disease and certain types of cancer, revived its IPO with a new S-1 filing on Friday, June 23, 2023. No terms were disclosed. Some IPO pros, however, think that the revived IPO will raise $75 million – the same as the one that was withdrawn in late March 2022. Goldman Sachs, TD Cowen, Piper Sandler and JMP Securities (a CITIZENS company) are the joint book-runners. Sagimet Biosciences, based in San Mateo, California, is developing novel therapeutics called fatty acid synthase (FASN) inhibitors that target dysfunctional metabolic pathways in diseases resulting from the overproduction of the fatty acid, palmitate, according to the prospectus. Sagimet’s lead drug candidate, denifanstat, is an oral once-daily pill in development to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). There are no treatments for NASH that are currently approved in the United States or Europe. The company expects to report topline liver biopsy results in the first quarter of 2024. Principal stockholders include entities affiliated with major VC and biotech names, including Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates. The company has a license partner in China. Sagimet Biosciences has not generated any revenue so far. For the 12 months that ended March 31, 2023, Sagimet Biosciences reported a net loss of $28.35 million. Apogee Therapeutics Targets AD & COPD Inflammatory and immunology indications are the targets of Apogee Therapeutics (APGE proposed), which filed plans for a $100 million IPO on Thursday (June 22, 2023). No terms were filed other than the placeholder amount of $100 million. Apogee Therapeutics, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, says it leading drug candidates are:

• APG777, a subcutaneous extended half-life monoclonal antibody targeting IL-13 in atopic dermatitis (AD), a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that affects about 40 million adults and 18 million children in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom. The company anticipates starting a Phase 1 clinical trial of APG777 in healthy volunteers in the second half of 2023, subject to regulatory clearance.
• APG808, a subcutaneous extended half-life monoclonal antibody targeting IL-4Ra in COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). COPD affects about 32 million adults age 40 and up in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom. The company says that it expects to nominate a development candidate for its APG808 program to treat COPD in 2023.

Worth noting: Fierce Biotech’s story on Apogee Therapeutics’ IPO plans. The story notes that Apogee is taking aim at Dupixent, the COPD drug from Regeneron and Sanofi, as well as gearing up to compete with Eli Lilly’s atopic dermatitis drug, lebrikizumab. Principal stockholders include entities affiliated with FMR LLC (Fidelity) and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, the prospectus says. Apogee Therapeutics reported a net loss of $52.31 million on no revenue from its inception on Feb. 4, 2022, through March 31, 2023, according to the prospectus. Big SPAC in the Mix A $300 million SPAC IPO slid into the IPO Pipeline this week. Nabors Energy Transition Corp. II (NETDU proposed), a clean energy-focused SPAC, filed plans  for its SPAC IPO on Wednesday (June 21, 2023): 30 million units at $10.00 each. Citigroup and Wells Fargo Securities are the joint book-runners of Nabors Energy Transition Corp. II’s SPAC IPO. Rounding out this week’s filings were two micro-cap IPOs – recyclable packaging maker Unifoil Holdings (UNFL proposed) and Hong Kong heavy construction subcontractor Ming Shing Group Holdings (symbol TBA). Each intends to raise $15 million. Unifoil Holdings, based in Fairfield, N.J., plans to offer 3.0 million shares at $4.00 to $6.00 to raise $15.0 million, according to an S-1/A filing dated June 22, 2023. This is an NYSE – American Exchange listing. Boustead Securities and Sutter Securities are the joint book-runners of Unifoil Holdings’ IPO. Ming Shing Group Holdings, Ltd., based in Hong Kong, plans to offer 3.75 million shares at $4.00 to raise $15.0 million. This is a NASDAQ listing. Pacific Century Securities LLC is the sole book-runner. “We mainly engage in wet trades works, such as plastering works, tile laying works, brick laying works, floor screeding works and marble works,” Ming Shing Group Holdings says in its IPO prospectus. It’s possible that more IPOs may stop by the SEC’s filing window early Monday morning – either to file their IPO plans and slide into the IPO Pipeline or to disclose their IPO terms and jump onto the IPO Calendar. Stay tuned.