Navigating the uneven waters of an IPO is by no means clear crusing. You simply can’t second guess the best way the deep, darkish oceans of the free market are going to hold you. However, when you emerge on the opposite facet of the tempest – that’s when the true work begins.
Three years and a worldwide pandemic later Zach Greenberger from the US-based rideshare enterprise, Lyft and Sanjay Khunti from EY clarify how they weathered the storm collectively and the way Lyft is now driving the crest of a wave on the again of the multi-billion-dollar providing.
Lyft raised greater than two billion {dollars} in its 2019 IPO. Timing these occasions is typically a hit and miss affair. Lyft nailed it with enormous success. But maintaining that development momentum and spending the cash correctly while steering a route by way of the brand new regulatory constraints going public took severe teamwork.
And if that wasn’t sufficient, Lyft and EY needed to exploit the advantages of a profitable funding spherical simply as the worldwide pandemic took maintain.
‘The IPO was a super exciting time for us,’ says Greenberger. ‘It necessitated a level of maturity and growth we needed to properly scale business operations.’
He says this is the place Lyft’s relationship with EY grew to become so essential.
Khunti agrees. ‘Absolutely. Lyft being in hyper-growth mode…but then having to face the requirements of being a public company meant it found itself in an interesting position. Working with EY at the Speed of Lyft, as we call it, meant they had a successful IPO and built a strong partnership.’
‘Operating in the public domain with a host of new regulations, laws and expectations from investors was just the tip of the iceberg.’
‘EY helped them through setting up their internal audit and SOX functions, designing their internal controls, redesigning the chart of accounts to scale with their targeted growth, and supporting the company’s monetary transformation.
‘Sanjay is spot on,’ says Greenberger. EY brings a ton of experience to help and increase our crew and ensure we’re constructing that correct basis for long run success.’
According to Khunti, with so many separate enterprise traces and models being developed underneath the Lyft banner – from rideshare to scooter rent to product supply to call simply three – EY wanted to take a holistic strategy.
‘One major step was to implement Oracle Financial Accounting Hub (FAH)’, he says. This gave Lyft a extra scalable accounting system which was auditable, traceable and gives an entire and correct image of their financials and the information they should make the appropriate enterprise selections.
‘That was really the first step in getting this transformation journey started and it’s offering profitable outcomes for our ongoing work collectively,’ says Khunti.