Feb 28, 2023

NYIAX, which will trade with the symbol NYX, was founded in 2012 to “bring forth a new era of financial platform technology and financial rigor within the advertising industry and beyond,” according to the prospectus it filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company developed and patented its platform with Nasdaq, with the idea of creating an asset class that would enable contract formation, compliance and reconciliation among buyers and sellers in the advertising industry . The idea is to use blockchain technology to simplify the complicated behind-the-scenes maneuvering that goes on in the ad-tech industry between the time an advertiser looks to place a campaign and when it is served to a customer. NYIAX said it will use the proceeds from the offering for everyday expenses including working capital, as well as to develop new applications and possibly acquire other businesses. So far, the company has been unprofitable. For the nine months that ended Sept. 30, it had about $950,000 in revenue and $7.2 million in operating expenses. For the fiscal year that ended Dec. 31, 2021, it had revenue of a little less than $600,000 and operating expenses of $11.2 million. Last year one customer represented 84% of its net revenue. “If we do not effectively manage our cash and other liquid financial assets, execute our plan to increase profitability and obtain additional financing, we may not be able to satisfy repayment requirements on our obligations,” the risk section of the prospectus reads. “As a result, the company is of the opinion that it will not have sufficient cash to meet working capital and capital requirements for at least 12 months from the date of this prospectus unless it is able to raise additional capital.” The company, which said it has never been profitable, said it is hiring for 11 roles, mostly in sales. Ultimax, which will trade under NFTU, was founded in 2018 in order to help video game developers make it easier to offer in-game purchases. In 2020 and 2021, Ultimax changed tacks and began publishing games and developing an NFT marketplace. The company’s first game, Geminose, is aimed at children with a Nintendo Switch. Its second, StoneHold, is a multiplayer fantasy game that’s currently in beta testing. The company had no employees as of last year, functioning instead with the help of seven consultants, software developers and engineers, according to the prospectus. The company, which had no revenue in 2020 or 2021, said it plans to use the proceeds from the IPO for general corporate purposes and to repay principal and interest on loans. Its financing activities, including buying rights to Geminose for $125,000, were from the sale of convertible promissory notes—debt that converts to equity—to investors. Although the two transactions are among the first in the area, micro-cap public offerings have been fairly active, according to a note from Renaissance Capital, as small Chinese companies are filing U.S. IPOs in volume not seen since June 2021. Perhaps more notable, larger deals also have picked up across the U.S., with seven IPOs raising $100 million or more since the start of the year.