Toast Inc. plans an initial public offering that could value the restaurant software provider at about $ 20 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
Toast used Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to subscribe to a possible listing later this year, these people said. Some people said they might consider other options, including a sale or a combination with a blank check company. There is no guarantee that Toast will go public or pursue another option.
In a listing, Toast, a 10-year-old company whose valuation has risen several times in the last year, would join a hot IPO market fueled recently by the profile debuts of companies such as Affirm Holdings Inc. and Bumble Inc. The shares of both trade well above IPO prices, as do their 2020 predecessors, including Airbnb Inc. and DoorDash Inc.
Also, supplying the record market of IPOs is a wave of so-called special-purpose procurement companies, which go public without a business and then hunt down one to merge with.
Founded in 2011 by Aman Narang, Jon Grimm and Steve Fredette, Toast offers payment processing hardware and cloud-based software for restaurants. In addition to basic point-of-sale offers, its products include payroll processing and email and loan marketing and restaurants through Toast Capital. Competitors include Square Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc.