LUPA Stocks are the nickname given to the four companies born during the mobile app generation. These companies have become one of the parts of the consumer economy in the 21st century. Some people also call them as PAUL stocks.
These companies either have filed to go public or are considering an initial public offering (IPO), soon. The ‘L’ stands for Lyft. It is a mobile ride-sharing company that appears in 2012 as the competitor of Uber.
The ‘U’ stands for Uber, as we all know, it is the ride-sharing company which has successfully expanded its business into other markets. It was founded in 2012. The ‘P’ stands for Pinterest. It was a web-based photo bulletin board and social network.
The last, ‘A’ stands for Airbnb, the most popular short-term rental and experience platform. These companies have appeared to be part of the app economy. They were all funded by venture capital and private equity money.
Lyft
This popular ride-sharing app is based in San Francisco. Originally founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer in 2008, it changed its name to become Zimride in 2008 and then Lyft in 2012.
The company mission is “To improve people’s lives with the world’s best transportation”. It filed to go public on March 1, 2019. Within the prospectus, it said that it had a net loss of $911 million in 2018 and $2.2 billion in revenue.
Uber
Uber, is the biggest competitor of Lyft in the ride-sharing economy. The app has been operated globally. It has even expanded into other businesses, like food delivery, scooter rental, and trucking.
Its popularity has come along with the criticism of its unfair labor practices. The company has yet to file an IPO as of March 4, 2019, but many analysts expect it to do so in early 2020.
The founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp envisioned a popular photo-sharing online pin-up board. The company claims that the platform gains 250 million annually each month.
Pinterest’s headquarter is in San Francisco, but it has offices all over the world.
Airbnb
It is the most popular peer-to-peer short term lodging rental platform. Airbnb has disrupted the travel industry in a way its founder has never imagined when they launched it in 2008. Nowadays, the company has expanded its business into tourism services and other ventures.
Airbnb says it provides access to more than 5 million unique places to stay in more than 81,000 cities and 191 countries. Its CEO has filed an IPO in 2018, but there are rumors saying that it will test the public water in 2019 or early 2020.
