Expedia’s hotel search engine Trivago kicks off IPO with SEC filing, plans to list on NASDAQ

Accommodation search engine Trivago has kickstarted its plans for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) after filing a Form F-1 with the securities and exchange commission (SEC) in the U.S.

Founded out of Germany in 2005, Trivago claims that more than 120 million travelers use its service to filter through 1.3 million hotels, which are aggregated from hundreds of booking portals and hotel chains. The company had raised more than $50 million in equity funding before travel giant Expedia purchased a 61.6 percent majority stake in 2013 for $564 million, with Trivago continuing to operate as a standalone entity in the intervening years.

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Expedia revealed back in July that it planned to pursue an IPO for Trivago by the end of 2016, rather than increasing its existing stake, after Trivago grew its revenue in Q2 by 41 percent to more than $200 million. Trivago hasn’t revealed the number of shares it will offer, or the price range, but in its F-1 filing the company did reveal that it plans to raise up to $400 million. However, this is merely an estimate for the purpose of calculating registration fees, and the actual size of the IPO could be very different. Some earlier reports speculated that Trivago could be looking to raise as much as $1 billion from its IPO.

The company will offer American depositary shares (ADSs), which represent Class A shares of its affiliate holding company, Travel B.V., and will be listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the “TRVG” ticker.