Editor's note: Dmytro Spilka, a tech and finance writer based in London, is the founder of web analytics startup Pridicto. 

After a year-long delay, construction management software firm Procore launched its IPO earlier this month. Although the delay in listing was attributed to complications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the company’s announcement came at an ideal time in a lively tech IPO market. 

After its initial attempt at filing to go public in February 2020, Procore filed again for its public offering in March 2021 and set a price range of $60 to $65 per share for its equity.  In the May 20 IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, it beat that range, selling 9.47 million shares for $67 each.

The stock ended the trading day at $88 per share, giving the company a market value of more than $8.5 billion based on outstanding shares listed in its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The successful IPO stems partly from the company’s steady growth over the past three years, with revenue increasing from $186.4 million in 2018, to $289.2 million in 2019, and to $400.3 million in 2020. The company also reported net losses over the same period of $56.7 million, $83.1 million and $96.2 million respectively. 

Despite global construction activity falling by almost 25% in the wake of the pandemic, Procore grew its customer base by 19.5% in 2020. With over 40% of construction firms reporting higher costs and slower project completion rates owing to labor shortages, according to the company’s filing, digital transformation across the industry actually accelerated during the course of 2020. 

The Carpinteria, California-based firm gauges the annual potential market opportunity for its products at around $9.4 billion for the countries it serves, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Australia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. 

A pandemic boost

With global markets awash with liquidity, IPO deal numbers and proceeds have posted their best respective performances since the dot-com boom of more than 20 years ago. These figures come into play even before we take the time to consider the meteoric rise of Special Purpose Acquisition Company IPOs, which in the first quarter of this year alone completed more deals and generated higher volumes of proceeds than the entirety of 2020, according to global accountancy Ernst & Young.  

IPOs have become increasingly popular since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Astoundingly, in Q1 of 2021 alone, companies and SPACs have combined to raise $230 billion already — putting global IPO proceeds on course to smash all existing records as the year progresses. 

And that’s the very trend Procore experienced in its own opening, with a 31% share spike on day one. 

Although Procore didn’t hit its intended 2020 IPO date, the yearlong delay may well have put it in an even better position — flush with cash at the very moment the construction industry and Procore’s own customers are all primed for a boom.