The past year has seen a plethora of activity in the startup sector—some good and some bad—health care startup Ubiome certainly speaks to the latter. The company folded by filing for bankruptcy after only five months following an FBI raid, but startup investors shouldn’t fret as the initial public offering (IPO) market can still be a good bet.
The core business of Ubiome surrounded gut-health tests, but investors got punched in the stomach after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy recently. Apparently, its billing practices came under question and the FBI crashed the proverbial party.
According to a Business Insider report, “Wilmington, Del. Court documents said the company may owe millions of dollars to health insurance companies, and could also face criminal and civil penalties from ongoing investigations.”
Kimmy Scotti, a partner at venture capital investor 8VC and uBiome board member said in an emailed statement: “We have taken significant action to put the company on stronger footing and believe in the strength and potential of uBiome’s scientific achievements and IP. We remain committed to supporting the company as it pursues an orderly sale of its assets for the benefit of all stakeholders.”
“This step builds on the decisive actions the Board and new management team have recently taken to stabilize the Company and leverage the substantive value of our advanced microbiome testing and analysis assets,” said acting CEO Curtis Solsvig said in a statement.
Ubiome is one of the sob stories for startups, but investors can still get a piece of the buzzing IPO sector via exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
IPOs Still a Hot Commodity
A trade impasse in the U.S.-China trade deal and fears of a global economic slowdown are causing markets to fret when it comes to allocating capital into equities, but that hasn’t stopped a red hot initial public offering (IPO) market. This is helping one IPO-focused ETF be a top performer thus far in 2019.
In fact, some analysts are making it known that an uptick in IPO activity has been correlated with downturns in the S&P 500 over a 12-month period. For investors who want a piece of the IPO action, but don’t necessarily want to assume all the risk associated with investing in a single stock like Uber or Lyft can look to 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. Based on Morningstar performance numbers as of Sept. 4, IPO is up 32.54% YTD.
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.
