What Is Squarespace’s Valuation? Maybe $6.8 Billion to Start.

The New York Stock Exchange said late Tuesday that the reference price for Squarespace, which is listing its shares Wednesday, would be $50.

This translates to a $6.8 billon valuation for Squarespace, a New York web hosting company, based on roughly 136 million shares outstanding. The $6.8 billion is below a $10 billion valuation Squarespace snagged with its last funding round in March.

Reference prices typically have no relevance as to how the stock will trade. Rather, they are meant to be a guide that informs the public of recent private trading activity.Coinbase Global (ticker: COIN), which went public in April using a direct listing,received a $250 reference price. Its stock opened at $381.

Squarespace is scheduled to make its public equity markets debut on Wednesday under the ticker SQSP on the NYSE. Squarespace shareholders have registered to sell 40.4 million shares. The company will not receive any proceeds from the offering.

Fourteen investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Barclays, and RBC Capital Markets, are working on the deal as financial advisers. Goldman and J.P. Morgan will work with the designated market maker to set Squarespace’s opening trading price, the prospectus said.

Founded in 2003, Squarespace is a website building and payments company. Its platform is used by millions of customers in over 180 companies, a prospectus said. Last week, the company said it expected revenue of $186 million to $189 million for its second fiscal quarter and revenue of $764 million to $776 million for its full fiscal year 2021.

Several investors have registered stock that they may or may not sell during the listing. This includes Squarespace Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena who is offering 6.2 million shares, while General Atlantic has registered 13.7 million and Index Ventures has put up about 6.5 million shares.

Squarespace is the third company to use a direct listing this year. ZipRecruiter, the online employment marketplace,is also going public next week using this method on the NYSE. Coinbase made its debut in April after the gaming platform Roblox (RBLX) launched its shares using a direct listing in March also on the NYSE.