$2 billion meal-delivery service Blue Apron just filed to go public

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/blue-apron-files-to-go-public-2017-6
June 02, 2017 at 12:08AM

Meal-delivery service Blue Apron filed an S-1 to go public Thursday, and we're getting a detailed look at its financials for the first time.

The main takeaways: Revenue is growing. Losses are growing. And the company is spending a ton on marketing.

Goldman Sachs is leading the offering, and Blue Apron hasn't priced its shares or said how many it plans to sell. We don't know what it wants to raise in the IPO yet.

The company has posted losses, and says in the filing that it anticipates it will continue to do so.

"We have a history of losses, and we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability," the company says in its S1.

It's losses have grown year-over year too:

2014: Lost $30.8 million

2015: Lost $47 million

2016: Lost $54.9 million

Revenues have been growing year-over-year, however. Here's what the last few years looked like in revenue growth:

2014: $77 million

2015: $340 million

2016: $795 million 

The company also spends a ton on marketing. (If you've ever listened to any major podcast, you've probably heard a Blue Apron ad.) The company spent $144.1 million, or 24.8% of its revenue, on marketing in 2016. It has about $61.2 million in cash on hand and $99.6 million in long-term debt.

Average order values are down slightly year-over-year. They were $59.28 in the March quarter of 2016 and $57.23 in the same quarter of 2017. However, the number of customers is up from 649,000 to just over 1 million. Each customer orders an average of four times per quarter from Blue Apron.

Here's an interesting look at the ages of Blue Apron customers. Most are 25 to 34 years old. (Millennials!) This chart also comes from the S-1:

As for executive compensation, CEO Matthew Salzberg was paid $415,560 in salary and bonus. Salzberg also owes 47.4 million shares, or 31% of the company. CFO Bradley Dickerson was paid $4.2 million in salary, bonus, and stock options. SVP of operations Pablo Cusatti made $605,019 in salary, bonus, and options.

Bessemer Venture Partners, one of Blue Apron's major investors, owns 23.8% of the company with 36 million shares. First Round Capital owns about 11% of the company.

Blue Apron was founded in 2012 and has raised nearly $194 million in funding to date. It was last valued around $2 billion. The company is known for sending pre-packaged and pre-measured meal ingredients directly to customers, along with the recipes to make the meal.

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