Oddity Shares Jump 40% in Stock Market Debut
Investors scoop up buzzy IPO of direct-to-consumer beauty and tech company Oddity, the seller of makeup brands Il Makiage and SpoiledChild, started trading on Nasdaq. Photo: Vanja Savic/Nasdaq By Lauren Thomas , Corrie Driebusch and Laura Cooper July 19, 2023 2:23 pm ET Investors rushed to buy shares of Oddity Tech on Wednesday, sending stock in the direct-to-consumer beauty company up about 40% in its initial trading. Oddity’s stock opened at $49.10 a share Wednesday afternoon, up from its IPO price of $35, when it started trading on Nasdaq under the symbol ODD. That gives the company a market capitalization of roughly $2.8 billion. The pop, coming after the company priced
Oddity, the seller of makeup brands Il Makiage and SpoiledChild, started trading on Nasdaq.
Photo: Vanja Savic/Nasdaq
Investors rushed to buy shares of Oddity Tech on Wednesday, sending stock in the direct-to-consumer beauty company up about 40% in its initial trading.
Oddity’s stock opened at $49.10 a share Wednesday afternoon, up from its IPO price of $35, when it started trading on Nasdaq under the symbol ODD. That gives the company a market capitalization of roughly $2.8 billion.
The pop, coming after the company priced its shares above expectations late Tuesday, bodes well for a depressed IPO market that has plodded ahead in fits and starts the past year and a half.
Oddity’s successful debut follows those of Mediterranean-style restaurant chain Cava Group as well as discount retailer Savers Value Village.
The offerings benefited from launching when enthusiasm for stocks is high. Speculative stocks are up, volatility has faded and Americans are feeling better about the economy.
Oddity, the seller of makeup brands Il Makiage and SpoiledChild, is also profitable and fast-growing. That is a combination investors regard as a welcome change from 2021, when there was a rush of money-losing companies listing shares in the U.S., many of which have since fallen flat.
The company differentiates itself from other beauty labels by leaning into the use of data and AI to make recommendations to customers. Oddity has said it plans to roll out additional brands using its technology in the future.
“I think our outcome shows with the right asset, [investors] are willing to invest,” said Oran Holtzman, co-founder and chief executive.
“We’ve had a lot of investors looking for that combination—businesses that can both continue scaling but do so in a profitable manner,” said Michael Farello,
a managing partner at L Catterton.The private-equity firm, an early investor that initially backed Oddity’s first brand Il Makiage in the summer of 2017, stands to reap a healthy return on its investment in the company.
Farello said the business has grown more than 20-fold since L Catterton took its initial stake. He added that Oddity’s strong public debut could help set the stage for a number of other consumer-facing businesses in the IPO pipeline.
L Catterton, which considered its own IPO last year, has over $33 billion in assets under management. The Greenwich, Conn., firm has helped take former holdings public, including RH
—formerly known as Restoration Hardware—and pool-and-spa company Leslie’s.The investment firm is also considering taking German shoe manufacturer Birkenstock public as soon as this fall, according to a person familiar with the matter. An IPO could garner a valuation of $7 billion or more, the person said. Bloomberg previously reported on Birkenstock’s IPO plans.
Write to Lauren Thomas at [email protected], Corrie Driebusch at [email protected] and Laura Cooper at [email protected]
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