The path to profitability will be a two-year trek for ridesharing company Uber as CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the hope is for the company to churn a EBITDA profit by the year 2021. In the meantime, investors can get IPO exposure without the single stock risk of allocating capital in Uber or other startup-turned public companies.
Investors who are hesitant to hop on board IPOs like Uber can look to examples like WeWork, which folded prior to its IPO launch as it burned capital and required a bailout by investor SoftBank. However, Khosrowshahi said WeWork is its own monster and not comparable with Uber.
“We are very, very, very different from WeWork,” Khosrowshahi said. “Fundamentally the rideshare market is of scale, is global, is an attractive business and it’s only going to get better in a competitive market.”
Khosrowshahi was confident that with some sweat equity, achieving profitability by 2021 is a real and tangible goal for the company. His comments came after the company reported third-quarter earnings that included net losses of over $1 billion.
“While we haven’t finalized our planning, and it’s going to take a lot of hard work from a lot of folks, we are actually targeting 2021,” said Khosrowshahi. “So we know there is the expectation of profitability, and we expect to deliver” by that time, he said.
This highlights the need for investors to get more broad exposure to IPOs via the Renaissance IPO ETF (NYSEArca: IPO). IPO seeks to replicate the price and yield performance of the Renaissance IPO Index, which is a portfolio of companies that have recently completed an initial public offering (“IPO”) and are listed on a U.S. exchange.
The IPO ETF gives investors exposure to shares of Uber, but diversifies holdings into various companies in order to mitigate risk. Here’s a look at its top 10 holdings:
- Spotify Technology: 9.43%
- Roku: 6.80%
- VICI Properties: 5.91%
- Elanco Animal Health: 5.45%
- DocuSign: 5.36%
- Americold Realty Trust: 3.83%
- AXA Equitable Holdings: 3.52%
- PagSeguro Digital: 2.89%
- MongoDB: 2.81%
- Uber Technologies: 2.73%
For investors seeking IPO opportunities around the globe, the Renaissance International IPO ETF (NYSEArca: IPOS) adds an international spin to the IPO market. IPOS tracks the rules-based Renaissance International IPO Index, which adds sizeable new companies on a fast-entry basis with the rest upon scheduled quarterly reviews. Current IPOS holdings include SoftBank Corp, Xiaomi and China Tower Corp.
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.
