By Atharva Singh
April 17 (Reuters) – Mobile app marketing firm Liftoff filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. on Friday, moving the Blackstone-backed company closer to the public markets on optimism around a broader rebound in listings.
Redwood City, California-based Liftoff had earlier withdrawn and refiled confidentially for an IPO in February after market volatility and a selloff in software stocks dented investor appetite for new listings.
That selloff was driven in part by concerns that rapidly advancing generative AI tools could disrupt traditional software business models, prompting several companies, including Liftoff, to delay or rethink their listing plans.
The company had aimed to raise up to $762 million at a valuation of about $5.17 billion in the earlier offering.
“By filing right now, it looks like Liftoff wants to make use of the reopening of the IPO window during this de-escalation phase in the Iran war,” said Lukas Muehlbauer, research associate at IPOX.
The recent rebound in software and technology stocks, alongside gains in sector-focused exchange-traded funds, has also encouraged issuers, with some investors viewing the space as oversold and increasingly attractive for new listings, Muehlbauer added.
Liftoff was formed after Blackstone combined its portfolio companies Liftoff and Vungle in 2021, and the buyout firm later sold a minority stake to General Atlantic while retaining majority ownership.
It provides an AI-enabled platform that helps mobile app developers acquire users and monetize their applications, reaching roughly 1.4 billion daily active users globally.
Liftoff reported a net loss of $23.1 million on revenue of $685.7 million for the year ended December 2025, compared with a loss of $48.2 million on revenue of $519.3 million a year earlier.
A pickup in listings also comes as easing tensions in the Iran conflict lift global risk appetite, with equity markets rallying sharply and benchmark indexes hitting record highs, prompting investors to return to primary markets and back new technology listings.
Liftoff will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “LFTO”.
Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Morgan Stanley are the joint lead book-running managers.
(Reporting by Atharva Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Maju Samuel)
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