Semrush to Publicly Sell Shares on New York Stock Exchange

Semrush is announcing an initial public offering (IPO) of company stock, filed on Monday, which will see the SEO software company selling shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

In a registration statement for the proposed IPO, it’s said that Semrush intends to list its Class A common stock under the ticker symbol “SEMR”.

The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.

Semrush is listed as an “emerging growth company” that enables customers to understand trends with actionable insights that can lead to improved online visibility.

The premium features of Semrush are a favorite among SEOs, but the software also offers solutions for PPC, content marketing, social media marketing, and competitive research.

Semrush offers a total of 50+ products, tools, and add-ons, and serves over 67,000 paying customers.

Here are more key details about the company, which Semrush reveals in its filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Semrush By The Numbers

Semrush provides the following details in its IPO registration statement:

• Offers a total of 50+ tools
• Serves 143 counties
• Been in business for 12 years
• Has 980+ employees in 5 countries
• Generates $144 million in annual revenue
• Over 67,000 paying customers
• Gross margin of 76%
• Raised $37 million in capital
• 94.9% of customers are in the small and medium sized category
• 54% of revenue is generated outside of the United States

Paying customers of Semrush can access actionable insights on:

• 200 million domains
• 20 billion keywords
• 33 trillion backlinks
• 17 billion URLs
• 310 million Google Display Network banner advertisements
• 1 billion events analyzed per day

Semrush Growth Strategies

What does Semrush plan to do after going public?

Here’s what the company lists as the key elements of its growth strategy:

• Acquire new paying customers
• Expand the use of its platform by its existing paying customer base
• Continue to innovate and develop new products and features
• Pursue opportunistic mergers and acquisitions

Why Invest in Semrush?

What does Semrush intend to do with proceeds from this IPO?

The company says all net proceeds will be re-invested in further development of Semrush:

“We currently intend to primarily use the net proceeds of this offering to invest further in our sales and marketing activities to grow our customer base, to fund our research and development efforts to enhance our technology platform and product functionality, to pay general and administrative expenses, and to fund our other growth strategies described elsewhere in this prospectus.

We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition of complementary companies, technologies or other assets, although we currently have no agreements, commitments or understandings with respect to any such transaction.”

Risks of Investing in Semrush

Semrush details the risks related to its business, as is standard with IPO filings so investors can make an educated decision.

I won’t list them all here, but it’s worth noting one in particular that we can all relate to.

Semrush says changes to search engine algorithms are among the greatest risks to its business:

“Changes to search engine algorithms may diminish the efficacy of certain of our products, tools, and add-ons, and potentially render them obsolete. For example, if a given search engine stopped using backlinks in its ranking algorithm, our customers’ perception of our backlink analytics tool, which enables customers to analyze and monitor the backlink profile of their own and other websites, may be adversely impacted.

Similarly, if a search engine ceases to manually penalize or take action against web pages for unnatural backlinks, then our customers may determine that auditing their backlinks is unnecessary which could cause them to devalue our backlink audit tool, which enables companies to check whether malicious websites have links to their sites, or cease using it altogether.”

In the event that any of those changes should occur, Semrush says it will “recalibrate” its product.

SEO Community Thoughts

It’s not every day that an SEO software company gets listed on the NYSE. We reached out to the SEO community to get their thoughts on this news and what they expect from the company in the future.

Navah Hopkins, Director of Paid Media at Justuno, says:

“Semrush was my first SEO tool as I discovered my career in digital marketing, and I’m thrilled for their next chapter. Their commitment to best-in-class tools and accessible digital marketing education paved the way for greater understanding and transparency in SEO and content marketing. With this IPO, I expect them to double down on simplifying tools/workflows as they mirror the digital channels they serve (i.e smart campaigns).”

Adam Riemer, President at Adam Riemer Marketing, says:

“Semrush is using their data and knowledge to build new tools ahead of the game. They were first to market with a comprehensive keyword planner and topic mapping tool. They also build plenty that fail, but at least they’re creating new tools and features that have practical uses. These tools can bring them into new markets like social media, site search, conversion optimization and more.”

If you have thoughts you’d like to share, please reach out to us on social media.

Sources: businesswire, sec.gov