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3 IPOs to Watch For This Week

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The last week of April is scheduled to see eight different companies go public, and Zacks has you covered with three unique IPO offerings to watch out for.

The wide-ranging list of companies set to go public this week will help contribute to an already booming 2017 for the IPO world. Since Jan. 1, 36 IPOs have been priced in the U.S.—not including this week's offerings—which is up around 177% year-over-year.

These three IPOs cover finance, big data, and biopharmaceuticals. Check them out:

China Rapid Finance

The Shanghai, China-based online credit company, China Rapid Finance Ltd., is China’s largest online consumer lending marketplace. China Rapid Finance has tapped into the company’s massive and growing middle class, which is estimated to be over 500 million people. Many of these people normally don’t have access to bank credit.

China Rapid Finance targets individuals online and through mobile devices who have quality employment records but no credit history. The company refers to these people as “Emerging Middle class Mobile Active.” China Rapid Finance is a massive online consumer credit marketplace that makes its money from recurring transaction and service fees from both borrowers and investors. According to the company, China is the world’s largest untapped consumer credit market, and it is expected to grow into an $870 billion market by 2020.

The company uses algorithms and metrics in its mostly-automated system of finding credit-worthy individuals online. China Rapid Finance’s typical consumption-based loans are normally worth less than $865 for 3-month terms. However, the company does offer up to $14,400 “Lifestyle” loans, which require greater screening.

Before starting China Rapid Finance, its founder, chairman, and CEO Dr. Zane Wang served as the head of analytics for Sears Holdings Corp.’s (SHLD - Free Report) credit cards services and advised the People’s Bank of China on the creation of a national credit bureau.

China Rapid Finance is set to offer 10 million shares at an expected price range of $9.50 to $11.50 per share, raising $105 million in the process. The company is scheduled to officially price on Wednesday in order to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. China Rapid Finance will trade under the ticker symbol XRF.

Cloudera Inc.

Cloudera Inc. is a U.S.-based big data company that claims to deliver the “world’s fastest, easiest, and most secure platform for data [management] and analytics, built on Apache Hadoop and latest open source technologies.”

The big data company works with companies to integrate both structured and unstructured data by utilizing CDH, its 100% open source distribution. CDH includes Apache Hadoop, which is used to help distribute, store, and process massive amounts of data by breaking it up into more manageable pieces. Cloudera’s offerings are aimed to be large and scalable across huge organizations.

The company’s current client list includes the likes of Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL - Free Report) . Google.

Former Google, Yahoo! Inc. , Oracle Corporation (ORCL - Free Report) , and Facebook executives founded Cloudera in 2008. The company was a winner of the 2017 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards.

Cloudera is set to offer 15 million shares at an expected price range of $12 to $14 in order to raise $195 million. The company’s shares are set to officially price on Thursday with trading starting on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. Cloudera will trade under the ticker symbol CLDR.

Zymeworks Inc.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Zymeworks Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops protein therapeutics that help treat cancer, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. According to its website, Zymeworks is one of the fastest-growing biotech companies “dedicated to the research, development, and commercialization of therapeutic antibodies.”

Founded in 2003, Zymeworks developed a proprietary protein modeling and structure-guided protein engineering system called ZymeCAD.

ZymeCAD helps develop high-quality models of protein therapeutics’ structure. It also tries to understand the effect of amino acid mutations on native protein, as well as other important functions in an effort to help develop more successful treatments for cancer, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. Zymeworks has also developed four different proprietary platforms technologies in order to “enable the development of next-generation therapeutics.”

Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK - Free Report) , Eli Lilly And Co (LLY - Free Report) , and Celgene Corporation are all Zymeworks corporate partners.

Zymeworks is set to offer 4.5 million shares at an expected price range of $13 to $16 in order to raise $165 million. The company’s shares are set to officially be priced Thursday, with the IPO set for Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. Zymeworks will trade under the ticker symbol ZYME.

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