Roblox Finally Goes Public

After multiple delays, video game creation platform Roblox went public on Wednesday via a direct public offering. The company’s value has exploded during the pandemic.

Roblox is its own sprawling universe that gives users tools and incentives to create their own games and entertain each other.

• Developer payouts are the company’s largest expense, reaching $328.7 million in 2020, nearly double the previous year.
• Over 1,250 developers earned more than $10,000 in company currency Robux, which can be converted into cash, and around a quarter of that group had six-figure earnings on the platform.
• Daily active users climbed to 32.6 million last year, and players spent 30.6 billion hours on the platform.

Roblox generated $923.9 million in revenue in 2020, an 82% lift over the year prior. The company also raised $520 million in a Series H funding round in January at a $29.4 billion valuation — a massive increase from its $4 billion valuation a year earlier.

In its first day of trading, Roblox stock jumped 54% from the $45 reference price and closed at $69.50, giving the company a market cap of about $45 billion. There is buzz that Roblox could follow in the footsteps of GameStop as the latest “meme” stock.

Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki’s stake is worth $4.6 billion after the company’s stock market debut.

Neil Rimer, a friend of Baszucki’s from Stanford, is a founding partner in VC firm Index Ventures, which owns shares worth $3.7 billion. Baszucki’s brother Gregory owns a $1.1 billion stake in Roblox, too.