Business

Serena Williams bags $857,500 in SurveyMonkey IPO

SurveyMonkey’s debut on the stock market looked like a grand slam for tennis ace Serena Williams.

Shares of SVMK — parent company of the online survey platform — soared 45 percent from their IPO price to $17.24 a share in their first day trading on the Nasdaq, valuing the company at $2.1 billion.

The surge was a boon to shareholders including Williams, who joined SVMK’s board of directors last year.

Wednesday’s gain added $857,500 to Williams’ net worth — nearly half of the $1.85 million she won as runner-up after throwing her controversial tantrum at this year’s US Open — and less than 1 percent of her career prize money of $88 million.

Williams’ holdings consist of 210,000 options with a strike price of $16.03 and 35,000 restricted stock units, according to public filings. Many of her fellow non-employee directors have similar arrangements.

Other winners of SurveyMonkey’s rally include hedge fund Tiger Global Management, with a 25.1 percent stake in the company, and the Sheryl K. Sandberg Revocable Trust, which holds 8.5 percent of shares after Wednesday’s offering.

Sandberg’s late husband, Dave Goldberg, was chief executive of SurveyMonkey until his death in 2015.

Sandberg plans to donate the shares — or proceeds from any sale — to the Sheryl Sandberg and Dave Goldberg Family Foundation as part of her commitment to the Giving Pledge.

SurveyMonkey, founded in 1999, waited nearly two decades to go public. Proceeds of Wednesday’s offering will go toward paying debts, according to regulatory filings.