German online car trading service Auto1 plans to raise $1.2B in an IPO on Frankfurt Stock Exchange, aiming to go public in Q1
Context & Ripple Effects
Auto1's path to this filing runs through SoftBank: the Japanese investor first circled the German car dealer in late 2017 and then closed a €460M investment at a €2.9B valuation, half of it in new shares. The company has been signaling public-market intent since August 2020, when reports emerged that the SoftBank-backed marketplace — by then operating in 30 markets and last valued at $3.8B in 2018 — was ramping up for an IPO.
The new detail is who is underwriting the debut: per the related coverage, Sequoia and Lone Pine will each buy roughly €50M of shares from existing investors and commit €50M+ more into the offering itself, giving the Q1 Frankfurt listing an institutional anchor before books even open. It also extends a Frankfurt template set years earlier when Scout24 filed for its own €200M+ German listing.
First-order effects
- Existing backers — SoftBank chief among them — get their first real liquidity path and a public mark on a stake that has sat at a private $3.8B valuation since 2018.
Second-order effects
- Sequoia and Lone Pine's combined €200M-ish commitment functions as demand insurance for the book, but also sets a reference price other late-stage European marketplaces will be measured against.
Third-order effects
- If the listing prices well, expect more SoftBank-era growth portfolios to route exits through home-market exchanges like Frankfurt rather than holding out for New York, reviving the domestic tech-listing channel Scout24 opened in 2015.
The trend: European online marketplaces scaled on mega-fund private capital are now converting to public listings on their home exchanges, with cornerstone investors de-risking the transition.