Initial public offerings or IPOs are known as a great way for investors to make a big profit in a relatively short time. On average, they can bring investors 40% returns in the first 3 months. Once the initial funding stages are out of the way, IPOs can be a great way for companies to gain exposure to the open market, help the company grow by attracting more capital and improve liquidity.
The novel concept of smart eyewear, once only imagined in sci-films, is now becoming a reality. With all this talk of going to Mars and putting chips into brains, it's about time there are some tech-bro glasses. If you want to get ahead in the space, keep scrolling to find out about the Innovative Eyewear stock IPO and all that it entails.
Innovative Eyewear History
Most companies have a long journey leading up to the big day their management teams get to ring the bell in the NYSE. Unlike most companies, Innovative Eyewear going public was not much of a struggle. Despite the cold winter in IPO land due to rising interest rates and overall negative sentiment within the market, Innovative Eyewear completed its IPO less than three years after the launch of its first beta product, Lucyd Loud 2020.
The company was founded in 2020 by Harrison Reed Gross, David Eric Cohen, and Konrad Dabrowski, with the idea that smart glasses would seamlessly integrate into users' lives, keeping them engaged in the digital world without disrupting their real-world experience. The smart glasses and sunglasses maker brought a unique direct-to-consumer approach to the industry allowing it to solidify its spot in the eyewear market. This all sounds cool on paper, but the next thought is how much? This is where they’ve been able to gain some popularity. Despite having optical-quality glasses bundled with water resistance, touch controls, and a hifi stereo, Innovative Eyewear has prices that compete with regular designer glasses.
Now back to the times when investors had to ask, ‘Is Innovative Eyewear a public company?’... following trend with its unusually quick IPO, Innovative Eyewear said no thank you to Sequoia Capital, Accel and other big venture capital firms, deciding to be a company for the people. While private, it raised capital through a crowdfunding campaign where it accumulated over $1 million from roughly 4,000 investors all wondering when Innovative Eyewear is going public. How could this quirky glasses company get any better? How about all crowdfund investors getting a free pair of the Lucyd Lyte Bluetooth designer glasses! We digress… let’s continue with more information on Innovative Eyewear’s IPO date and price.
LUCY Public Listing Key Data and IPO Date
Innovative Eyewear IPO Date: 08/14/2022
Ticker: LUCY
Exchange: Nasdaq
IPO stock price: $7.50
Valuation at IPO: $7.35 mln
Market cap(12/19/22): $6.01 mln
CEO: Harrison Reed Gross
Category: Ophthalmology Stocks
The one thing Innovative Eyewear did like to do traditionally was its IPO process. None of that special purpose acquisition company junk - just a nice clean IPO with an over allotment option. Let's dive into the Innovative Eyewear IPO 2022.
Innovative Eyewear’s IPO date was originally supposed to be in May 2022, where it was seeking a $10 million valuation. Instead, the founders wanted to keep people asking ‘is Innovative Eyewear publicly traded?’ until August of 2022, when it listed on the NASDAQ for $7.50 per share. Maxim Group LLC was the sole book-runner on the deal, helping Innovative Eyewear sell 980,000 shares of its common stock with two accompanying Warrants to purchase up to 1.96 million shares at an exercise price of $7.50 per share. This raised Innovative Eyewear $7.35 million, prior to accounting for underwriting discounts and offering expenses.
On Innovative Eyewear’s stock IPO date, it started falling within a half hour and kept going to reach a max loss of 28% on the day. The stock was able to rebound slightly, finishing the day down around 20%, which brought tears of joy to Maxim Group’s eyes. The underwriter was granted the option to purchase up to an additional 147,000 shares of common stock which it had allocated to primary investors for a set price of $7.50 per share. As a result of the IPO underperforming so heavily, Maxim Group went straight to the secondary market to repurchase those shares for a cheaper price then it had to resell to primary investors for. No conflicts of interest in the IPO pricing, right? Anyhow, investors should’ve been happy for the mere 20% loss on the first day, as LUCY now currently trades at $0.81 per share, shedding almost 90% of its IPO price. Didn’t think this story was going this route, did you?
So What About Investing Now?
Innovative Eyewear has brought some very exciting technology to the market and has unique competitive advantages, but there is a lot of baggage that comes with the company.
Let’s jump back to the great sounding news of the company being able to offer competitive pricing despite all the gadgets within its eyewear. As a result of this competitive pricing, Innovative Eyewear has never turned a bottom-line profit. In the first nine months of 2022, the company recorded a net loss of $3.8 million. Operating at a net loss is not the worst thing when dealing with a new company that is focused on promoting and improving its technology, but it gets worse. The net loss so far in 2022 was up significantly from the net loss of $1.8 million in the first nine months of 2021. A net loss is okay when the company is working to get towards that positive range, but it appears Innovative Eyewear either isn’t focused on positive net income right now or just isn’t great at generating it.
Additionally, one of the competitive advantages the company holds is its multi-channel sales approach, specifically in brick-and-mortar stores. Well, things haven’t been going hot there. In their most recent filing, out of all the retail stores that placed initial stock orders, only 27.7% of them have re-ordered the product. The only explanation for why a retail store wouldn’t reorder is due to lack of demand, which means 72.3% of stores that launched the product have experienced weak demand.
New and innovative technology is something that the world will always need and is great for economic growth. Innovative Eyewear has found a niche for itself and is working to become a prominent leader in the industry, but at the moment it seems that industry is lacking interest. This puts a lot of weight on Innovative Eyewear to not only keep improving its product, but also promote growth for an entire industry. Although it has been a rocky road post-IPO so far, there are some bright glimpses ahead for the company, and it is one to keep a lookout for any eye-catching news in the future.
FAQ
When is the Innovative Eyewear IPO date?
Innovative Eyewear already had its IPO back in August of 2022 and is currently a publicly traded security on the NASDAQ. The Innovative Eyewear IPO price was $7.50 per share but has now traded down to $0.81 per share.
Who owns Innovative Eyewear stock?
Innovative Eyewear is mainly owned by insiders at the company, making up nearly 70% of its outstanding shares. Institutional owners are the next largest owners, holding a little over 5% of the firm.
Are Innovative Eyewear and Lucyd Ltd. the same enterprise?
Innovative Eyewear is a subsidiary of Lucyd Ltd. which is the portfolio company of Tekcapital Plc. Tekcapital is a global investment and tech transfer company that finds, acquires, and invests in breakthrough technologies that improve the quality of life.
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