The big wave of initial public offerings that the tech industry has been anticipating this year is finally about to start.

Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc. and Pinterest Inc. are on track to debut on the stock market over the next few weeks, with their closely watched listings poised to set the tone for the all the other “unicorn” startups hoping to launch their IPOs in 2019.

The reception to Pinterest, Lyft and Uber on the stock market will be closely watched by the other tech firms currently preparing for their IPOs. Slack Technologies Inc. and incident response provider PagerDuty Inc. are among the companies that on track for a potential 2019 listing.

The newest addition to the list of IPO hopefuls is Zoom Video Communications Inc., which released its prospectus within an hour of Pinterest. Unlike its peers, the videoconferencing provider is already profitable, having logged a net income of $7.6 million in the 12 months ended Jan. 31. Revenues increased by an impressive 118 percent in the same period, to $330.5 million, thanks partly to growing demand from large enterprises.

Lyft leads the charge

Lyft will be the first of the trio to go public, with the ride-hailing provider planning to start trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange late next week. It’s aiming to raise up to $2 billion at a market capitalization of as much as $19 billion. But though the offering is drawing a great deal of interest on Wall Street, it may not turn out to be an entirely smooth ride for Lyft.

On Thursday, CNBC reported that some of the prospective investors attending the company’s IPO roadshow have expressed skepticism about its profitability plans. Lyft lost $911 million on revenues of $2.2 billion in 2018 and reportedly provided no concrete time frame for when it expects to climb out of the red. The company told investors that it plans to start cutting losses in 2020, with an eye to achieving 70 percent gross margins in the long run.

Uber not far behind

Uber is expected to hit the stock market a few weeks behind Lyft. Like its rival, the company has prioritized revenue growth over the bottom line, logging a loss of $768 million on $3 billion in sales during the last three months of 2018 alone. But the ride-hailing giant is actively taking steps to cut costs, which led to a more than $300 million drop in fourth-quarter losses on a year-over-year basis.

It was reported this morning that Uber has selected the New York Stock Exchange as the venue for its IPO. This represents a major win for the NYSE, given that Uber is said to be a seeking a valuation as high as $120 billion. And the ride-hailing giant isn’t the only unicorn that has reportedly chosen the stock exchange over the tech-heavy Nasdaq. 

Pinterest joins the fray

Pinterest is said to have expedited its stock market plans in response to the buzz around the tech industry’s other upcoming IPOs, with insiders claiming that it’s looking to float on the NYSE as early as mid-April. The same sources correctly anticipated that the company would publish its prospectus this afternoon.

The filing reveals that Pinterest ended 2018 with a $63 million net loss and total sales of $755.9 million. This breaks down to average revenues of $3.14 per user, a 24 percent increase over the prior year. The social network has been growing the size of its installed base as well, with the number of monthly active visitors on its site rising from 216 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 265 million as of the last three months of 2018.

Photo:  Alan Levine/Flickr