Roblox S-1 IPO filing released

Roblox, whose online gaming software has been hugely popular with kids during the pandemic, filed its IPO prospectus on Thursday, joining a growing crop of companies that are trying to go public before the end of the year.

Revenue in the third quarter jumped 91% from a year ago to $242.2 million, Roblox said in the filing. Its net loss more than doubled to $48 million.

Airbnb, DoorDash and online lender Affirm have also filed to go public in the past week, taking advantage of a post-election rally in U.S. stocks and investor demand for high-growth tech names. The companies are trying to hit the market in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, people familiar with their plans told CNBC last week.

Roblox was founded in 2006, but has never seen a year like 2020. Daily active users almost doubled in the period ended September to 36.2 million. A metric the company calls “hours engaged” more than doubled to 8.7 billion.

“We have experienced rapid growth in the three months ended June 30, 2020, September 30, 2020 and for a portion of the three months ended March 31, 2020, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic given our users have been online more as a result of global COVID-19 shelter-in-place policies,” the company said in the filing.

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