LUPA stocks are a name for four companies. They were created into the mobile app generation and have become part of the modern century consumer economy. In fact, they often fall under the name PAUL stocks. They are filed to go public and are considering an initial public offering soon.
- L in LUPA stands for Lyft, which is the mobile ride-sharing company that is a rival to Uber since 2012;
- U stands for Uber, a ride-sharing company, created in 2009 and has expanded into other markets;
- P means Pinterest, the photo bulleting board, which is also a social network;
- A stands for Airbnb, which is a rental and experience platform that has revolutionized the travel and lodging industry.
Significantly, the companies, mentioned above, emerged as part of the app economy and were created by private equity and venture capital money. All four companies have become strong brands with consumer loyalty and wide adoption; however, but profits are elusive. Furthermore, their scale and popularity have wet the public markets’ appetite, where some of them managed to shift publicly traded companies. Let’s analyze these companies.
Lyft
A California-based company, called Lyft was created in 2007 by current CEOs and President Logan Green and
John Zimmer. Lyft operates a mobile app and offers vehicles for hire, scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, as well as food delivery.
According to the company to its mission is to serve people the world’s best transportation and develop their lives.
Lyft filed to go public on March 1, 2019. It revealed that it faced a net loss of $911 million in 2018 on $2.2 billion in revenue. Thus, it may not gain profitability. Lyft is targeting a valuation among $21-23bn.
Uber
A San Francisco-based company, Uber that offers vehicles for hire, food delivery, package delivery, couriers, etc., is Lyft’s main rival in the ride-sharing economy, The company was founded in 2009 and was called UberCab, and its creators are Travis Kalanick and Gar
rett Camp.
Uber operated in different countries and cities. According to the company, it has more than 110 million monthly active users and has operations in up to 900 metropolitan areas globally.
Moreover, In the U.S., the company has a 67% market share for ride-sharing and a
24% market share for food delivery. Uber has yet to file for an IPO as of March 4, 2019; however, analysts assume it to do so in 2019 or early 2020. The company received an evaluation of $120 billion, although it resumes losing money.
The next one is Pinterest. Pinterest is an American-based image-sharing social media service, which allows saving as well as the discovery of information.
The company was founded by Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp, and Paul Sciarra in 2010, and according to Pinterest, in 2020 August, it had more than 400 million active users.
The company opened offices across the world. However, its headquarters remain in California, San Francisco. In fact, half of its customers are not U.S. citizens.
Airbnb
As we already mentioned, A stands for the last character in LUPA. Airbnb is an American-based, vacation rental online marketplace company. It allows arrangement for hotel, homestays, or tourism experiences. The company formed in 2008 and founders have never imagined that their creation will entirely change the travel industry.
The company creators are Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharzyk. They say that Airbnb provides access to up to 5 million unique places to stay in above 81,000 cities and 191 countries.
