Pinterest’s forthcoming IPO is shaping up to be one most characterized by lowered expectations. The firm, which operates an image-based search and recommendation site, has set a preliminary selling price 26% below where it last raised money. Its revenue and user numbers—$756 million last year and 250 million monthly active users—haven’t reached the levels that some people expected by this point.
Even so, the handful of venture capital firms that hold most of the stock—including Bessemer, FirstMark and Andreessen Horowitz—are in line to realize solid returns once the company goes public and they’re able to sell their shares, about six months after the offering which is expected in the next few weeks. Bessemer, the biggest outside shareholder in Pinterest, is likely to see a return of almost 2,800%—or nearly a billion dollars. FirstMark, which first invested a decade ago, should also do very well.
