Published on: 2025-12-24
Motive IPO is arriving at a moment when investors want growth, but they also seek discipline. The company filed its public registration statement with the SEC on December 23, 2025, and has applied to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MTVE.
The company states that the IPO is expected to begin as soon as practicable after the registration statement becomes effective; however, the filing does not yet provide a final pricing date or share count.
Additionally, the S-1 shows the business is still loss-making, and the path to consistent profitability will matter as much as headline revenue growth.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Company | Motive Technologies, Inc. |
| IPO Status | Filed publicly; pricing date not yet announced |
| S-1 Filing Date | December 23, 2025 |
| Prior Step | Confidential draft registration statement submitted September 3, 2025 |
| Exchange | NYSE |
| Proposed Ticker | MTVE |
| Share Count / Price Range | Not yet disclosed |
| Lead Underwriters (Named) | J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays, Jefferies and More |
As mentioned above, Motive's IPO does not have a confirmed pricing date or first trading day yet. The only confirmed date is the S-1 filing date (December 23, 2025), because the deal timing will depend on SEC review, market conditions, and final underwriting decisions.
Motive has applied to list its Class A common stock on the NYSE under the ticker MTVE.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, Motive reported $327.3m in revenue and a $138.5m net loss, versus $268.9m in revenue and a $113.9m net loss in the comparable prior-year period.
The filing also reports annualised recurring revenue (ARR) of $501 million as of September 30, 2025, up from $393 million a year earlier.
Motive is a San Francisco-based company that sells an "integrated operations" platform aimed at fleet-heavy and asset-heavy industries. The product pitch is simple: help businesses run vehicles, equipment, spending, and compliance with more automation and fewer accidents and administrative mistakes.
It is an AI-powered fleet management firm serving industries such as logistics, construction, energy, and manufacturing, with customers including Halliburton, KONE, Komatsu, NBCUniversal, and Maersk.
Its IPO candidacy matters because investors are looking for growth listings again, but they have become far less tolerant of growth at any price. Motive is entering the public market with improved scale and expanding recurring revenue, while losses remain meaningful.
Motive has continued to invest in adjacent capabilities, including electrification analytics. In June 2025, the company announced it acquired InceptEV, a startup focused on battery intelligence and machine learning to support EV fleet transition decisions.
It fits a broader narrative of expanding beyond compliance and cameras into higher-level operations optimisation. It also raised $150m in a funding round announced in July 2025, which was widely reported as positioning the company for a potential IPO path.
Private funding close to an IPO can serve multiple purposes, including balance-sheet support, product investment, and signalling, although it can also influence valuation expectations for the public deal.
| Metric | 9M ended 30 Sep 2024 | 9M ended 30 Sep 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | $268.920m | $327.319m | +22% |
| Net loss | $113.916m | $138.524m | Loss widened |
| Gross margin | 70% | 70% | Flat |
A key tension in Motive's filing is that rising revenue is alongside mounting losses. For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, the company reported revenue of $327.3 million and a net loss of $138.5 million.
The S-1 confirms the same revenue figure and reports a net loss of $138.524 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2025.
Additionally, the steady 70% gross margin is a constructive sign, suggesting the business can scale efficiently once operating costs grow more slowly than revenue.
However, the operating cost base remains heavy. The filing shows sales and marketing, R&D, and G&A remain large percentages of revenue, which is typical for a growth-stage platform still expanding enterprise reach.
| Metric | Sep 30, 2024 | Sep 30, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Core Customers | 7,875 | 9,201 |
| Large Customers | 312 | 494 |
| Core NDR | 109% | 110% |
| Large NDR | 124% | 126% |
Motive splits customer metrics into Core Customers (ARR greater than $7,500) and Large Customers (ARR greater than $100,000). As of September 30, 2025, it reported 9,201 Core Customers and 494 Large Customers, up from 7,875 and 312, respectively, a year earlier.
It also reported net dollar retention of 110% for Core Customers and 126% for Large Customers as of September 30, 2025. These numbers are important as they indicate the company is increasing revenue from its current customers even without considering new clients.
Fleet and operational management is a crowded market. The closest publicly traded comp is Samsara (IOT), which offers a connected operations platform across fleet management, equipment monitoring, and industrial workflows.
Samsara reported ARR near $1.46 billion in fiscal year 2025 reporting and has continued to grow ARR in fiscal 2026 updates, which helps explain why public investors treat the category as a durable, multi-year SaaS build-out.
Motive: strong recurring revenue scaling, expanding a large customer base, and still loss-making.
Samsara: larger scale, widely tracked public comps for valuation and multiples.
You do not need the companies to be identical for the comparison to be useful. Public comps matter because they anchor how the Street prices growth, margins, and durability.
Revenue is rising, but losses are also increasing. That is not fatal, but it changes the valuation conversation from "growth" to "growth plus a credible path to profitability.
The filing describes the potential damage from security incidents, platform disruptions, and integration challenges with customer systems and third-party technologies.
Motive notes that its spend management product exposes it to credit risk tied to customers' ability to pay balances incurred on Motive cards.
The multi-class framework centralises voting power, potentially diminishing the influence of minority shareholders.
The filing also notes customary lock-up restrictions, typically about 180 days, after which additional shares may become eligible for sale, depending on the agreement's terms and any early-release provisions.
Motive is not yet publicly traded, so investors should think in practical steps rather than hype.
You will typically be able to buy shares once MTVE begins trading on the NYSE.
Access to IPO allocations before the initial trade is limited and based on broker qualifications and the level of investor demand.
There are private market venues that discuss access to pre-IPO shares, but availability is limited and often restricted to accredited investors.
Treat any "pre-IPO price" as an indication, not a guarantee of IPO pricing.
Motive has applied to list on the NYSE under the ticker MTVE.
There is no confirmed trading date yet.
Motive has applied to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
Yes. Motive is the company formerly known as KeepTruckin, which later rebranded as Motive.
In conclusion, Motive's IPO is a clean, high-profile test of investor appetite for operational AI and fleet technology at scale. At this stage, the key date is the filing milestone; the relevant parties will only release the pricing date once subsequent amendments disclose the share count and proposed price range.
From an investment and analysis standpoint, Motive's story will likely be judged on the durability of its recurring revenue and the pace of enterprise expansion, not on growth alone.
Disclaimer: This material is for general information purposes only and is not intended as (and should not be considered to be) financial, investment or other advice on which reliance should be placed. No opinion given in the material constitutes a recommendation by EBC or the author that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person.
