tm253352-8_s1 - none

S-1 1 tm253352-8_s1.htm S-1 tm253352-8_s1 - none - 7.7656729s

TABLE OF CONTENTS

As filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 18, 2025.

Registration No. 333-

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

Waystar Holding Corp.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware

(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)

7373

(Primary Standard Industrial
Classification Code Number)

84-2886542

(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)

1550 Digital Drive, #300
Lehi, Utah 84043
(844) 492-9782

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

Matthew R. A. Heiman
Chief Legal & Administrative Officer
9901 Linn Station Road, Ste. 550
Louisville, Kentucky 40223
(844) 492-9782

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s agent for service)

With copies to:

William B. Brentani
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
2475 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, California 94304
Tel: (650) 251-5000
Fax: (650) 251-5002

Xiaohui (Hui) Lin
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
425 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10017
Tel: (212) 455-2000
Fax: (212) 455-2502

Jason M. Licht
Christopher J. Clark
Latham & Watkins LLP
555 Eleventh Street, NW-Suite 1000
Washington, D.C. 20004
Tel: (202) 637-2200
Fax: (202) 637-2201

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement is declared effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box: ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act:

	Large accelerated filer ☐			Accelerated filer ☐
	Non-accelerated filer ☒			Smaller reporting company ☐
				Emerging growth company ☒

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until this Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities nor a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

Subject to Completion, Dated February 18, 2025

Prospectus

18,000,000 Shares

WAYSTAR HOLDING CORP.

Common Stock

This is a public offering of shares of common stock of Waystar Holding Corp. The selling stockholders identified in this prospectus are offering 18,000,000 shares of common stock. We are not selling any shares of common stock under this prospectus and will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling stockholders. Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “WAY.” On February 14, 2025, the last reported sale price of our common stock on Nasdaq was $45.35 per share.

Investing in our common stock involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 15 of this prospectus to read about factors you should consider before buying shares of our common stock.

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and, as such, we have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and may elect to do so in future filings. See “Prospectus Summary—Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company.”

Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

Per Share

Total

Public offering price

Underwriting discount(1)

Proceeds, before expenses, to selling stockholders

(1)

See “Underwriting” for a description of the compensation payable to the underwriters.

The selling stockholders have granted the underwriters the right, for a period of 30 days from the date of this prospectus, to purchase, from time to time, in whole or in part, up to 2,700,000 additional shares of common stock from the selling stockholders at the public offering price less the underwriting discount.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares against payment in New York, New York on or about , 2025.

J.P. Morgan Goldman Sachs & Co. LLCBarclays

The date of this prospectus is , 2025

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

	Page
Industry and Market Data		i
Trademarks, Service Marks, Tradenames, and Copyrights		ii
Basis of Presentation		ii
Non-GAAP Financial Measures		iii
Summary		1
Risk Factors		15
Forward-Looking Statements		23
Use of Proceeds		26
Dividend Policy		27
Capitalization		28
Principal and Selling Stockholders		29
Description of Capital Stock		32
Shares Eligible for Future Sale		41
Certain United States Federal Income Tax Consequences to Non-U.S. Holders		43
Underwriting		46
Legal Matters		54
Experts		55
Where You Can Find More Information		56
Incorporation by Reference		56

You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus, or any free writing prospectus we may authorize to be delivered or made available to you. None of us, the selling stockholders, or the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide you with information or representations other than those contained in this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus, or any free writing prospectus prepared by us or on our behalf. None of us, the selling stockholders, or any of the underwriters take any responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. The information in this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus, or any applicable free writing prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus, or any applicable free writing prospectus, as the case may be, or any sale of shares of our common stock. Our business, results of operations, and financial condition may have changed since such date.

For investors outside the United States: the selling stockholders are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of our common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. None of us, the selling stockholders, or any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus, or any applicable free writing prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus, or any applicable free writing prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of common stock and the distribution of this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus, or any applicable free writing prospectus outside the United States.

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

Within this prospectus, we reference information and statistics regarding the industry in which we operate. We have obtained this information and statistics from various independent third-party sources,

TABLE OF CONTENTS

independent industry publications, reports by market research firms, and other independent sources. Some data and other information contained in this prospectus are also based on management’s estimates and calculations, which are derived from our review and interpretation of internal surveys and independent sources, as well as third-party reports commissioned by us. The information is as of its original publication dates (and not as of the date of this prospectus). Data regarding the industries in which we compete and our market position and market share within these industries are inherently imprecise and are subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties beyond our control, but we believe they generally indicate size, position, and market share within these industries. While we believe such information is reliable, we have not independently verified any third-party information, and our internal company research, data, and estimates have not been verified by any independent source.

In addition, assumptions and estimates of our and our industry’s future performance are subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors.” These and other factors could cause our future performance to differ materially from our assumptions and estimates. See “Forward-looking Statements.” As a result, you should be aware that market, ranking, and other similar industry data included in this prospectus, and estimates and beliefs based on that data may not be reliable. None of us, the selling stockholders, or the underwriters can guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any such information contained in this prospectus.

TRADEMARKS, SERVICE MARKS, TRADENAMES, AND COPYRIGHTS

We own a number of registered and common law trademarks and pending applications for trademark registrations in the United States. Unless otherwise indicated, all trademarks, service marks, trade names, and copyrights appearing in this prospectus are proprietary to us, our affiliates, and/or licensors. This prospectus also contains trademarks, tradenames, service marks, and copyrights of third parties, which are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks, tradenames, service marks, and copyrights referred to in this prospectus may appear without the ®, TM, SM, or © symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensors to these trademarks, tradenames, service marks, and copyrights. We do not intend our use or display of other parties’ trademarks, tradenames, service marks, or copyrights to imply, and such use or display should not be construed to imply, a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other parties.

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

The following terms are used in this prospectus and have the following meanings unless otherwise noted or indicated by the context:

•

“Bain” means those certain investment funds of Bain Capital, LP and its affiliates;

•

“CPPIB” means Canada Pension Plan Investment Board;

•

“Credit Facilities” means, collectively, the First Lien Credit Facility, the Revolving Credit Facility, and the Receivables Facility;

•

“DGCL” means the Delaware General Corporation Law, as amended;

•

“EQT” means those certain investment funds of EQT AB and its affiliates;

•

“Exchange Act” means the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended;

•

“First Lien Credit Facility” means the term loan credit facility under the first lien credit agreement, dated as of October 22, 2019, by and among Waystar Technologies, Inc. and the lenders party thereto, as amended from time to time;

•

“GAAP” means U.S. generally accepted accounting principles;

•

“Institutional Investors” means EQT, CPPIB, and Bain, and their respective affiliates;

•

“JOBS Act” means the U.S. Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, as amended;

•

“Net Revenue Retention Rate” means the total amount invoiced to clients in a given twelve-month period divided by the total amount invoiced to those same clients from the prior twelve-month

TABLE OF CONTENTS

period. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Performance Metrics and non-GAAP Financial Measures—Net Revenue Retention Rate;”

•

“Receivables Facility” means the receivables facility under the receivables financing agreement, dated as of August 13, 2021, by and among Waystar RC LLC, PNC Bank, National Association, as administrative agent, Waystar Technologies, Inc., as initial servicer, and PNC Capital Markets LLC, as structuring agent, as amended from time to time;

•

“Revolving Credit Facility” means the revolving credit facility under the first lien credit agreement, dated as of October 22, 2019, by and among Waystar Technologies, Inc. and the lenders party thereto, as amended from time to time;

•

“SEC” means the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission;

•

“Second Lien Credit Facility” means the term loan credit facility under the second lien credit agreement, dated as of October 22, 2019, by and among Waystar Technologies, Inc. and the lenders party thereto, as amended from time to time;

•

“Securities Act” means the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended;

•

“selling stockholders” means Derby LuxCo S.à r.l., CPP Investment Board Private Holdings (4) Inc., BCPE Derby Investor, LP., and BCPE Derby (DE) SPV;

•

“Stockholders Agreement” means the stockholders agreement, dated as of June 10, 2024, by and among the Institutional Investors, certain stockholders, and certain members of management;

•

“underwriters” means the firms listed on the cover page of this prospectus; and

•

“Waystar,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” mean the business of Waystar Holding Corp. and its subsidiaries.

Numerical figures included in this prospectus have been subject to rounding adjustments. Accordingly, numerical figures shown as totals in various tables may not be arithmetic aggregations of the figures that precede them.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

This prospectus contains “non-GAAP financial measures” that are financial measures that either exclude or include amounts that are not excluded or included in the most directly comparable measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Specifically, we make use of the non-GAAP financial measures “Adjusted EBITDA,” “Adjusted EBITDA margin,” “non-GAAP net income/(loss),” and “non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share.” Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income/(loss), and non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share have been presented in this prospectus as supplemental measures of financial performance that are not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP. We believe they assist investors and analysts in comparing our operating performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating performance. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income/(loss), and non-GAAP income/(loss) per share are useful to investors in highlighting trends in our operating performance, while other measures can differ significantly depending on long-term strategic decisions regarding capital structure, the tax jurisdictions in which we operate, and capital investments. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income/(loss), and non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share to supplement GAAP measures of performance in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions, to establish discretionary annual incentive compensation, and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. Management supplements GAAP results with non-GAAP financial measures to provide a more complete understanding of the factors and trends affecting the business than GAAP results alone provide.

Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income/(loss), and non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share are not recognized terms under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss) or net income (loss) margin as measures of financial performance or cash provided by

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

operating activities as a measure of liquidity, or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP. Additionally, these measures are not intended to be a measure of free cash flow available for management’s discretionary use, as they do not consider certain cash requirements such as interest payments, tax payments, and debt service requirements. The presentations of these measures have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Because not all companies use identical calculations, the presentations of these measures may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies and can differ significantly from company to company. For a discussion of the use of these measures and a reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP measures, see “Summary—Summary Historical Financial and Other Data.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUMMARY

This summary highlights selected information that is presented in greater detail elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary does not contain all of the information that you should consider before deciding to invest in our common stock. You should read the entire prospectus carefully, including “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and our financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus, before making an investment decision. This summary contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.

Our Mission

Our mission is to simplify healthcare payments through our modern cloud-based software, enabling our healthcare clients to prioritize patient care and optimize their financial performance.

Overview

Waystar provides healthcare organizations with mission-critical cloud software that simplifies healthcare payments. Our enterprise-grade platform streamlines the complex and disparate processes our healthcare provider clients must manage to be reimbursed correctly, while improving the payments experience for providers, patients, and payers. We leverage internally developed artificial intelligence (“AI”) as well as proprietary, advanced algorithms to automate payment-related workflow tasks and drive continuous improvement, which enhances claim and billing accuracy, enriches data integrity, and reduces labor costs for providers.

Put simply, our software helps providers get paid faster, accurately, and more efficiently, while ensuring patients receive a modern, transparent, and consumer-friendly financial experience.

The healthcare payment ecosystem is highly complex, beginning with pre-service patient onboarding and extending through post-service revenue collection, with dozens of interdependent steps in between. Within this multi-step workflow, the process for determining how much a provider should be reimbursed involves millions of permutations of variables, such as over 10,000 diagnosis codes that are constantly changing and unique payer contracts, each with individual rules, processes, and reimbursement requirements. The burden borne by providers of tracking and managing all of these variables, coupled with a constantly evolving regulatory framework, often results in incorrect payments or denials that require time-consuming appeals procedures to resolve. Historically, healthcare providers have relied upon a patchwork of manual processes and systems to navigate these complexities and support their payment functions. However, this legacy approach has resulted in workflow delays, lost revenue, and slower time to payment. Our purpose-built software platform addresses these challenges and optimizes healthcare payments across all stages of the patient journey. Our clients utilize our software to manage pre-encounter workflows such as eligibility checks and prior authorization approvals, as well as mid- and post-encounter workflows such as co-pay collection, claims submission and monitoring, and payer remittances.

Our software is used daily by providers of all types and sizes across the continuum of care, including physician practices, clinics, surgical centers, and laboratories, as well as large hospitals and health systems. We currently serve over 30,000 clients of various sizes, representing over one million distinct providers practicing across a variety of care sites, including 16 of the top 20 U.S. News Best Hospitals. Our client base is highly diversified, and for the year ended December 31, 2024, our top 10 clients accounted for only 11.2% of our total revenue for such period. Our business model is designed such that as our clients grow to serve more patients, their claims and transactional volumes increase, resulting in corresponding growth in our business. In addition, our clients frequently adopt a greater number of our solutions over time and introduce our solutions across new sites of care. In 2024, we facilitated over six billion healthcare payments transactions, including over $1.8 trillion in gross claims volume. As of 2023, we facilitated healthcare payments transactions spanning approximately 50% of patients in the United States.

Our platform benefits from powerful network effects. Our cloud-based software is driven by a sophisticated, automated, and curated rules engine, employing AI to generate and incorporate real-time feedback from millions of network transactions processed through our platform each day. Every transaction we process provides additional data insights across providers, patients, and payers, which are embedded in

TABLE OF CONTENTS

updates that are deployed efficiently across our client base. This results in cumulative benefits to us over time - as we capture more data from each transaction we process, we leverage that data to continue to improve the Waystar platform through embedded machine learning, advanced algorithms, and other in-house AI technologies to deliver added value to our clients. In turn, the more value we create for our clients, the more likely it is that they will continue to use our products, allowing us to continue to capture more data that results in tangible improvements to our platform. As a result, our clients benefit from faster and more efficient performance from software that is evolving to meet ever-changing regulatory and payer requirements, enabling accurate and timely reimbursement.

Industry Background

Healthcare is one of the largest and most complex vertical end-markets within the U.S. economy, accounting for 17.6% of the U.S. gross domestic product as of 2023. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), total U.S. healthcare spending was $4.9 trillion in 2023. National health expenditures are expected to grow 5.6% annually reaching $7.6 trillion in 2032, or 19.7% of GDP. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the annual cost of wasteful spending in healthcare has ranged from $760 billion to $935 billion in recent years, or nearly one-quarter of total healthcare spending. Of this, $350 billion is administrative-related, which is inclusive of healthcare payments-related waste.

The Waystar platform is purpose-built to address the administrative headwinds faced by healthcare providers, including:

•

Antiquated, legacy technology systems and data silos. The historically slow pace of digital adoption by healthcare organizations has led to a patchwork of disparate software point-solutions that lack the interoperability and scalability of a modern cloud-based technology architecture.

•

Reliance on inefficient, manual processes. Poorly integrated legacy systems have led many healthcare organizations to employ labor-dependent solutions to address the critical demands of their businesses, often resulting in suboptimal financial performance for providers and a substandard experience for patients.

•

Increasing labor and administrative costs. According to an American Hospital Association report, labor constituted 60% of hospital expenses in 2023. Hospital labor costs increased by $42.5 billion, reaching a total of $839 billion from 2021 to 2023. Over the period from 2014 to 2023, compensation for hospital employees has significantly outpaced overall inflation, with a 45% increase compared to a 28.7% rise in overall inflation.

•

Reimbursement complexity and collection challenges. Determining reimbursement to a provider from a payer or a patient is dependent on a myriad of factors that are both highly complex and constantly evolving. According to KFF research, approximately 17% of 2021 healthcare claims were initially denied, leaving a significant unmet need for solutions that reduce denials, increase first pass acceptance, and simplify appeals. Providers bear the burden of navigating reimbursement obstacles, and missteps can ultimately result in lost revenue or delayed cash flow. In addition, healthcare providers often struggle to convert patient bills (i.e., patient responsibility) to cash payments as patients are also tasked with navigating ever-changing benefits policies and interacting with outdated technology.

•

Accelerating consumer demand for digital tools. Patients are bearing a greater burden of healthcare costs than ever before, with more than 50% of American private industry workers enrolling in high deductible health plans according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data (2023). Out-of-pocket costs constituted 10% of total U.S. personal healthcare expenditures in 2023 according to CMS, and the estimated average patient lifetime spending is $1.4 million, based on a 2021 Health Management Academy Research report. Despite these trends, patients lack access to digital tools and accurate information for healthcare payments, such as transparency in insurance coverage and out-of-pocket cost estimates pre-service, as well as flexible payment arrangements to pay for care.

Our Market Opportunity

Over time, administrative workflows that were traditionally insourced by healthcare providers have undergone a meaningful transformation. Seeking more effective solutions to address industry challenges,

TABLE OF CONTENTS

providers initially outsourced these functions to third-party specialized services vendors. However, with advances in technology infrastructure and cloud-based software, as well as increased interoperability between systems, providers are increasingly utilizing automated software solutions to further enhance efficiency. We believe the healthcare payments workflow is currently undergoing such an evolution, and that Waystar is well-positioned to benefit from providers gravitating towards more modern, software-oriented solutions.

We estimate that our total addressable market (“TAM”) with respect to our current software solution set was $15 billion in 2022. To estimate our market opportunity, we categorized the United States healthcare provider market into tiers based on setting of care and size of practice. We then applied our average pricing by product, accounting for pricing differences at varying sized providers, and multiplied the average product price by the corresponding practice count per setting of care to determine our TAM.

Based on a third-party study commissioned by the Company, we believe our TAM has the potential to increase to almost $20 billion in 2027, reflecting a 5% compounded annual growth rate (“CAGR”) from 2022 to 2027, driven by growth within healthcare payments (notably, in prior authorizations, patient payments, and revenue cycle management analytics), increased outsourcing in revenue cycle management, as well as secular technology tailwinds such as greater utilization of AI. We expect to expand our TAM further over time as we develop new solutions and address adjacent workflows.

We believe we have consistently grown in excess of the market since 2016 and expect we will continue to grow our market share in the future by virtue of our differentiated platform and capabilities. We believe the market share of our solutions within the hospital segment and ambulatory practice segment is approximately 4% and 8% (calculated as a percentage of our revenue as compared to our TAM estimates by setting of care), respectively, demonstrating the ample white space in which we can continue driving our growth.

The Waystar Platform

Our innovative, cloud-based software platform is purpose-built to simplify our clients’ payment-related challenges. We believe our platform significantly outperforms those of our competitors, who lack either modern functionality or the ability to address the full end-to-end payments workflow.

The key components of our platform include:

•

Modern, differentiated software. We provide modern, cloud-native, scalable healthcare payments software solutions. Our single-instance, multi-tenant infrastructure is underpinned by an event-driven microservices architecture, all of which we have built in-house.

•

A comprehensive solution set. Our software addresses the entire healthcare payments workflow, from pre-service patient onboarding and prior authorization through post-service payment collection, allowing our clients to address the full demands of their organizations with a single software platform.

•

Seamless integrations. Our solutions are integrated with a broad range of systems provided by over 200 channel partners, including enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) applications, as well as practice management (“PM”) and electronic health record (“EHR”) systems.

•

An expansive network. Our extensive network of clients and counterparties, which we have built over two decades of industry experience, underpins our platform and has allowed us to develop a large database of information to generate insights and drive continuous improvements.

•

Advanced AI capabilities driven by proprietary data asset. We build predictive scoring capabilities using extensive training data sets and advanced machine learning which we apply to data that passes through our platform. Using these machine-learning models, we are able to predict an outcome for a variety of reimbursement workflows which we incorporate into our solutions to drive improved results for payers, providers, and patients. Our data asset is comprised of the billions of transactions we facilitate each year and the numerous variables that factor into each of those payments. This allows us to leverage the compounding value of this data asset to advance our AI and automation capabilities, which continuously learn and improve our platform.

Our platform provides the following benefits to our clients:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•

Increased revenue. Our software solutions simplify the payment process, allowing our clients to increase the share of revenue they collect.

•

Quicker payments. Our software helps expedite payments by streamlining and automating cumbersome workflows that create excessive delays.

•

Greater productivity. Our ability to automate portions of the payment cycle allows our clients to reduce operating costs and focus on their core mission of caring for their patients.

•

Financial visibility. We deploy analytics, reporting, and forecasting tools that provide our clients with unprecedented visibility into areas where they can further improve their payment process and collections.

•

Rapid time-to-value. Our architecture seamlessly integrates with our clients’ existing systems and technology, allowing our clients to quickly realize value from our solutions.

Our platform enables us to provide industry-leading technology at scale to more than 30,000 clients across more than six billion healthcare payment transactions worth over $1.8 trillion in annual gross claims in 2024. The quality and innovation of our technology has been widely recognized, as evidenced by our receipt of a MedTech Breakthrough Award for healthcare payments innovation, several Stevie Awards, including Company of the Year in healthcare, and numerous Best in KLAS awards.

Why Waystar Wins

Through decades of experience, we have honed our deep domain expertise, fostered long-standing client relationships, and built our library of rules and algorithms. We believe our modern, cloud-based platform combined with our subject matter expertise are extremely difficult to replicate and provide us with a meaningful competitive advantage. We believe these factors, together with the following additional strengths, position us well for continued success:

•

Strong brand with attractive client return on investment (“ROI”). The Waystar brand is synonymous with quality, reliability, robust analytics, exceptional customer service, and a deep and interconnected network. This strength is evidenced by our high provider Net Promoter Score (“NPS”) of 74 and #1 rank versus competitors in percentage of clients indicating the highest level of satisfaction with our services based on a third-party survey commissioned by us in 2023. Our brand, as well as the tangible ROI that we deliver, drives strong client loyalty, as evidenced by our 110.1% Net Revenue Retention Rate for the year ended December 31, 2024. Our clients view us as a trusted vendor and support our success by recommending Waystar to other providers, further driving growth and adoption

TABLE OF CONTENTS

of our solutions. As a testament to this trust, Forbes recently named Waystar to its 2025 Most Trusted Companies in America list.

•

Differentiated client experience. We have a relentless focus on operational execution and deliver outstanding client experience. According to a third-party survey commissioned by us in 2023, Waystar ranked #1 in client satisfaction with implementation time versus competitors, 94% of clients are satisfied with our integrations with other systems, and 98% of clients say we deliver on trust very well or extremely well. For our larger clients, we deploy a client success team, which serves as both a dedicated resource and trusted strategic partner to help drive our value proposition. From our consistently on-time implementations to our highly responsive client service, we seek to support our clients so they can maximize the benefits of our software.

•

Mission-driven innovation culture. We have cultivated a company culture that is focused on helping our clients by developing and delivering industry-leading software solutions. This innovation-focused culture has been foundational in creating a modern technology platform that delivers a comprehensive end-to-end suite of solutions with an intuitive user interface. According to a third-party survey commissioned by us in 2023, Waystar ranked #1 in satisfaction with rate of product innovation and vision versus competitors, and 94% of clients are satisfied with our capabilities in automation.

•

Experienced leadership and technology teams with a track record of execution. Our values-driven and award-winning leadership team brings together deep experience in the software and healthcare industries and strong relationships with our clients and key stakeholders. We believe our team has the strategic vision, leadership qualities, technological expertise, and operational capabilities to continue to successfully drive our growth.

We believe our platform strengths and differentiation are most evident in our ability to win clients. We had an 83% win rate against our competitors for fiscal years 2022 through 2024 in situations where the client ultimately elected to switch vendors or purchase a new solution.

Our Growth Strategy

We plan to capitalize on our market opportunity by executing on the following growth strategies:

•

Expand our relationships with existing clients. We believe we have a meaningful opportunity to continue driving growth within our current client base. We grow with existing clients in three ways-first, as they expand their businesses, provide more healthcare services, and see more patients; second, through cross-selling as they adopt additional Waystar offerings; and third, through up-selling as they leverage our solutions across additional providers and sites of care. We have a track record of building long-standing relationships with our clients, often growing from an initial solution to multi-solution adoption. Based on the estimated whitespace within our existing clients for the solutions we currently provide, we believe we have the opportunity to approximately double our revenue through cross-sell and up-sell of our solutions to existing clients.

•

Grow our client base. We address a large and growing market that has a meaningful need for the solutions we provide. While we serve over one million providers today, there are over 7.5 million providers that we believe can benefit from our solutions.

•

Deepen and expand our relationships with strategic channel partners. We are highly focused on furthering our strategic channel partnerships. Our channel partners accelerate our growth by providing us access to a larger client base and actively promoting Waystar. We have established strong relationships with the nation’s leading EHR and PM providers, which drives a significant competitive advantage. We will continue to invest in deepening our current relationships and building new ones to drive our growth.

•

Innovate and develop adjacent solutions. We will continue to invest heavily in the Waystar platform to expand our product breadth and depth, increase automation, strengthen system performance, and improve the user experience. Our product roadmap is informed by both continuous client feedback as well as our own assessments of opportunities to further streamline and simplify healthcare payments. Due to our modern architecture and purpose-built software, we have little technical debt as compared

TABLE OF CONTENTS

with legacy software platforms serving the market. As a result, we can focus our resources on innovating and advancing our platform for the benefit of our clients.

•

Selectively pursue strategic acquisitions. Since 2018, we have completed and successfully integrated nine acquisitions. These acquisitions complement our organic product roadmap and have helped us enhance our platform, add new solutions, and expand our market reach. Our approach is to fully integrate and consolidate our acquisitions into the Waystar platform, which enables us to provide a seamless user experience for our clients, as well as drive innovation on the combined platform. We will continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities that improve our offering and accelerate our growth.

Summary of Risk Factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider all of the risks described in “Risk Factors” elsewhere in this prospectus and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, results of operations, prospects, and financial condition may be materially adversely affected. In such case, the trading price of our common stock may decline, and you may lose part or all of your investment. Below is a summary of some of the principal risks we face:

•

our operation in a highly competitive industry;

•

our ability to retain our existing clients and attract new clients;

•

our ability to successfully execute on our business strategies in order to grow;

•

our ability to accurately assess the risks related to acquisitions and successfully integrate acquired businesses;

•

our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships;

•

the growth and success of our clients and overall healthcare transaction volumes;

•

consolidation in the healthcare industry;

•

our selling cycle of variable length to secure new client agreements;

•

our implementation cycle that is dependent on our clients’ timing and resources;

•

our dependence on our senior management team and certain key employees, and our ability to attract and retain highly skilled employees;

•

the accuracy of the estimates and assumptions we use to determine the size of our total addressable market;

•

our ability to develop and market new solutions, or enhance our existing solutions, to respond to technological changes or evolving industry standards;

•

the interoperability, connectivity, and integration of our solutions with our clients’ and their vendors’ networks and infrastructures;

•

the performance and reliability of internet, mobile, and other infrastructure;

•

the consequences if we cannot obtain, process, use, disclose, or distribute the highly regulated data we require to provide our solutions;

•

our reliance on certain third-party vendors and providers;

•

any errors or malfunctions in our products and solutions;

•

failure by our clients to obtain proper permissions or provide us with accurate and appropriate information;

•

the potential for embezzlement, identity theft, or other similar illegal behavior by our employees or vendors and a failure of our employees or vendors to observe quality standards or adhere to environmental, social, and governance standards;

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•

our compliance with the applicable rules of the National Automated Clearing House Association and the applicable requirements of card networks;

•

increases in card network fees and other changes to fee arrangements;

•

the effect of payer and provider conduct which we cannot control;

•

privacy concerns and security breaches or incidents relating to our platform or data (including personal information and other regulated data);

•

the complex and evolving laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity;

•

our ability to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property rights;

•

our ability to use or license data and integrate third-party technologies;

•

our use of “open source” software;

•

legal proceedings initiated by third parties alleging that we are infringing or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights;

•

claims that our employees, consultants, or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties;

•

the heavily regulated industry in which we conduct business;

•

the uncertain and evolving healthcare regulatory and political framework;

•

health care laws and data privacy and security laws and regulations governing our Processing (as defined below) of personal information (which may also be referred to as “personal data” or “personally identifiable information”);

•

reduced revenues in response to changes to the healthcare regulatory landscape;

•

legal, regulatory, and other proceedings that could result in adverse outcomes;

•

consumer protection laws and regulations;

•

contractual obligations requiring compliance with certain provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering laws and regulations;

•

existing laws that regulate our ability to engage in certain marketing activities;

•

our full compliance with website accessibility standards;

•

any changes in our tax rates, the adoption of new tax legislation, or exposure to additional tax liabilities;

•

limitations on our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income;

•

losses due to asset impairment charges;

•

restrictive covenants in the agreements governing our Credit Facilities;

•

interest rate fluctuations;

•

unavailability of additional capital on acceptable terms or at all;

•

the impact of general macroeconomic conditions;

•

our history of net losses and our ability to achieve or maintain profitability;

•

the interests of the Institutional Investors may be different than the interests of other holders of our securities;

•

our status as an “emerging growth company” and whether the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to “emerging growth companies” will make our common stock less attractive to investors; and

•

the other factors discussed under “Risk Factors.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company

We qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities Act. As a result, we are permitted to, and intend to, rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are applicable to other companies that are not emerging growth companies. Accordingly, in this prospectus, we have not included a compensation discussion and analysis of our executive compensation programs. In addition, for so long as we are an emerging growth company, among other exemptions, we will:

•

not be required to engage an independent registered public accounting firm to report on our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”);

•

not be required to comply with the requirement in Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Auditing Standard 3101, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When the Auditor Expresses an Unqualified Opinion, to communicate critical audit matters in the auditor’s report;

•

be permitted to present only two years of audited financial statements and only two years of related “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our periodic reports and registration statements, including in this prospectus;

•

not be required to disclose certain executive compensation related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the chief executive officer’s compensation to median employee compensation; or

•

not be required to submit certain executive compensation matters to stockholder advisory votes, such as “say-on-pay,” “say-on-frequency,” and “say-on-golden parachutes.”

We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest to occur of:

•

our reporting of $1.24 billion or more in annual gross revenue;

•

our becoming a “large accelerated filer,” with at least $700.0 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates;

•

our issuance, in any three year period, of more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt; and

•

the fiscal year-end following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial public offering.

The JOBS Act also permits an emerging growth company such as us to take advantage of an extended transition period to comply with new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period under the JOBS Act.

For additional information, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of our Common Stock—We are an “emerging growth company” and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to “emerging growth companies” will make our common stock less attractive to investors.”

Our Principal Stockholders

EQT AB, together with its subsidiaries (“EQT AB”), is a purpose-driven global investment organization focused on active ownership strategies. With a Nordic heritage and a global mindset, EQT AB has a track record of more than three decades of developing companies across multiple geographies, sectors and strategies. EQT AB has investment strategies covering all phases of a business’ development, from start-up to maturity. EQT AB has EUR 269 billion in total assets under management (EUR 136 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments — Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT AB is one of the most active private equity investors in the healthcare and technology sectors globally, with over 80 healthcare and 100 technology companies across the global portfolio, and over 100 dedicated investment professionals focused on these strategies.

CPPIB is a professional investment management organization that manages the fund in the best interest of the more than 22 million contributors and beneficiaries of the Canada Pension Plan. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, investments are made around the world in public equities, private

TABLE OF CONTENTS

equities, real estate, infrastructure, and fixed income. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York City, San Francisco, São Paulo, and Sydney, CPPIB is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm’s length from governments. At December 31, 2024, the fund totaled approximately C$699.6 billion.

Bain Capital is one of the world’s leading private investment firms with approximately $185 billion of assets under management that creates lasting impact for its investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which it lives. Since its founding in 1984, it has applied its insight and experience to organically expand into several asset classes including private equity, credit, special situations, public equity, venture capital, and real estate. Bain leverages its shared platform to capture cross-asset class opportunities in strategic areas of focus. With offices on four continents, its global team aligns its interests with those of its investors for lasting impact. The firm has a long and successful history of investing in healthcare and software businesses and has a dedicated group of investment professionals focused on these sectors.

Our Corporate Information

We were originally incorporated in Delaware on August 13, 2019 and subsequently changed our name to Waystar Holding Corp. on August 11, 2023. Our principal offices are located at 1550 Digital Drive, #300, Lehi, Utah 84043 and 9901 Linn Station Road, Louisville, Kentucky 40223. Our telephone number is (844) 492-9782. We maintain a website at waystar.com. The reference to our website is intended to be an inactive textual reference only. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of this prospectus.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE OFFERING

Common stock offered by the selling stockholders

18,000,000 shares (or 20,700,000 shares if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of common stock in full).

Option to purchase additional shares of our common stock

The selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 2,700,000 additional shares of our common stock from the selling stockholders at the public offering price, less the underwriting discount.

Common stock to be outstanding
immediately after this
offering

172,108,240 shares.

Use of proceeds

The selling stockholders will receive all of the net proceeds from the sale of shares of common stock in this offering. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of common stock by the selling stockholders or if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares. For additional information, see “Use of Proceeds.”

Institutional Investors

After this offering, EQT, CPPIB, and Bain will beneficially own approximately 23.8%, 18.2%, and 13.7%, respectively, of our common stock (or 23.1%, 17.7%, and 13.3%, respectively, of our common stock if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares is exercised in full).

For so long as EQT, CPPIB, and Bain beneficially own 40% or more of the voting power of our total outstanding common stock, our stockholders will have certain corporate governance rights, such as the right to (i) fix the number of directors, (ii) at the request of at least two of EQT, CPPIB, and Bain, cause special meetings of our stockholders to be called, and (iii) amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws by majority vote rather than supermajority vote of our stockholders.

Further, EQT will have the right to nominate to our board of directors (i) two nominees for so long as EQT beneficially owns 25% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock and (ii) one nominee for so long as EQT beneficially owns 5% or greater, but less than 25%, of our then outstanding common stock. CPPIB will have the right to nominate to our board of directors one nominee for so long as CPPIB beneficially owns 5% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock. Bain will have the right to nominate to our board of directors one nominee for so long as Bain beneficially owns 5% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock. In addition, the Institutional Investors have certain nomination rights with respect to our board committees. See “Description of Capital Stock.”

Dividend policy

We have no current plans to pay dividends on our common stock. Any decision to declare and pay dividends in the future will be made at the sole discretion of our board of directors and will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, cash requirements, financial condition, legal, tax, regulatory, and contractual restrictions, including restrictions in the agreements governing our

TABLE OF CONTENTS

indebtedness, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. See “Dividend Policy.”

Risk factors

Investing in shares of our common stock involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 15 for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before investing in shares of our common stock.

Trading symbol

“WAY”

Except as otherwise indicated, all information in this prospectus regarding the number of shares of common stock that will be outstanding immediately after this offering is based on 172,108,240 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024, and:

•

excludes 2,089,241 shares of our common stock underlying 2,089,241 restricted stock units that were outstanding as of December 31, 2024;

•

excludes 16,511,128 shares of our common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options; and

•

does not reflect 4,595,546 shares of common stock available for future issuance under our 2024 Equity Incentive Plan and 3,250,000 shares of common stock available for future issuance under our 2024 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, in each case, as of December 31, 2024.

Summary Historical Financial and Other Data

The following table summarizes our consolidated financial and other data for the periods and dates indicated. The balance sheet data as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 and the statements of operations, comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future or any other period and our results for any interim period are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any full fiscal year.

The summary consolidated financial data set forth below should be read in conjunction with “Risk Factors,” “Capitalization,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and our financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

	Year ended December 31,
	2024			2023
	($ in thousands, except per share data)
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:
Revenue		$	943,549		$	791,010
Operating expenses
Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization expenses)			315,730			249,767
Sales and marketing			156,935			124,437
General and administrative			111,753			62,924
Research and development			48,775			35,332
Depreciation and amortization			186,631			176,467
Total operating expenses			819,824			648,927
Income from operations			123,725			142,083
Other expense
Interest expense			(141,762)			(198,309)
Related party interest expense			(4,508)			(7,608)
Loss before income taxes			(22,545)			(63,834)
Income tax benefit			(3,420)			(12,500)
Net loss		$	(19,125)		$	(51,334)
Per Share Data:
Net loss per share:
Basic		$	(0.13)		$	(0.42)
Diluted		$	(0.13)		$	(0.42)
Weighted-average shares outstanding:
Basic			149,915,839			121,675,430
Diluted			149,915,839			121,675,430
Cash Flow Data:
Net cash provided by (used in):
Operating activities		$	169,768		$	51,460
Investing activities			(27,268)			(61,517)
Financing activities			16,654			(17,151)
Other Financial and Operating Data:
Adjusted EBITDA(1)(2)		$	383,496		$	333,715
Non-GAAP net income/(loss)(1)(3)		$	169,611		$	86,577
Non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share (diluted)(1)(3)		$	1.09		$	0.68
Net loss margin			(2.0)%			(6.5)%
Adjusted EBITDA margin(1)(2)			40.6%			42.2%
Balance Sheet Data:
Cash and cash equivalents		$	182,133		$	35,580
Total assets			4,577,004			4,582,974
Total liabilities			1,497,218			2,533,042
Total stockholders’ equity			3,079,786			2,049,932

(1)

Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income/(loss), and non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share are supplemental measures of our performance that are not required by or presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures are not recognized terms under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss) and net income (loss) margin as measures of financial performance or cash provided by operating activities as a measure of liquidity, or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP. In addition, in evaluating these non-GAAP

TABLE OF CONTENTS

measures, you should be aware that in the future, we may incur expenses similar to the adjustments in the presentation of these non-GAAP measures. The presentation of these non-GAAP measures should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items. Because not all companies use identical calculations, the presentations of these measures may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies and can differ significantly from company to company.

We present these non-GAAP measures because we believe they assist investors and analysts in comparing our operating performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating performance. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income/(loss), and non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share are useful to investors in highlighting trends in our operating performance, while other measures can differ significantly depending on long-term strategic decisions regarding capital structure, the tax jurisdictions in which we operate, and capital investments. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income/(loss), and non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share to supplement GAAP measures of performance in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions, to establish discretionary annual incentive compensation, and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. Management supplements GAAP results with non-GAAP financial measures to provide a more complete understanding of the factors and trends affecting the business than GAAP results alone provide.

(2)

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net loss before interest expense, net, income tax benefit, depreciation and amortization, and as further adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition and integration costs, asset and lease impairments, costs related to amended debt agreements, and IPO related costs. Adjusted EBITDA margin represents Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

However, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider either of them in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of the limitations are:

•

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

•

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin do not reflect interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments on our debt;

•

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin do not reflect our tax expense or the cash requirements to pay our taxes; and although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the tangible assets being depreciated will often have to be replaced in the future, and Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin do not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements.

(3)

We define non-GAAP net income/(loss) as net income excluding the impact of stock-based compensation, acquisition and integration costs, asset and lease impairments, IPO related costs, and costs related to amended debt agreements. The tax effects of the adjustments are calculated using a management estimated annual effective non-GAAP tax rate of 21%.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The following table reconciles net (loss) income to Adjusted EBITDA and net loss margin to Adjusted EBITDA margin:

	Year ended December 31,
	2024			2023
	($ in thousands)
Net loss		$	(19,125)		$	(51,334)
Interest expense, net			146,270			205,917
Income tax benefit			(3,420)			(12,500)
Depreciation and amortization			186,631			176,467
Stock-based compensation expense			54,437			8,848
Acquisition and integration costs			859			3,947
Costs related to amended debt agreements			14,138			393
IPO related costs			2,140			1,977
Other(a)			1,566			—
Adjusted EBITDA		$	383,496		$	333,715
Revenue		$	943,549		$	791,010
Net loss margin			(2.0)%			(6.5)%
Adjusted EBITDA margin			40.6%			42.2%

(a)

Adjustments relate to additional lease costs due to the relocation of our Louisville office.

The following table presents a reconciliation of net loss to non-GAAP net income/(loss) and non-GAAP net income / (loss) per share:

	Year ended December 31,
	2024			2023
	($ in thousands, except per share data)
Net loss		$	(19,125)		$	(51,334)
Stock-based compensation expense			54,437			8,848
Acquisition and integration costs			859			3,947
Costs related to amended debt agreements			14,138			393
IPO related costs			2,140			1,977
Other(a)			19,445			—
Intangible amortization			147,887			159,406
Tax effect of adjustments			(50,170)			(36,660)
Non-GAAP net income/(loss)		$	169,611		$	86,577
Non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share:
Basic		$	1.13		$	0.71
Diluted		$	1.09		$	0.68
Weighted-average shares outstanding:
Basic			149,915,839			121,675,430
Diluted			155,677,094			126,888,989

(a)

Adjustments relate to additional lease costs of $1.6 million and accelerated depreciation of $17.9 million due to the relocation of our Louisville office.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider all of the risks and uncertainties described below and the other information set forth in this prospectus and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 before deciding to invest in shares of our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, results of operations, prospects, and financial condition may be materially adversely affected. In such case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Some statements in this prospectus, including statements in the following risk factors, constitute forward-looking statements. See “Forward-looking Statements.”

Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of our Common Stock

The Institutional Investors will continue to hold a significant percentage of our outstanding common stock after this offering and their interests may be different than the interests of other holders of our securities.

Upon the completion of this offering, the Institutional Investors will own approximately 55.7% of our outstanding common stock, or approximately 54.1% if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares. As a result, the Institutional Investors are able to control or influence actions to be taken by us, including future issuances of our common stock or other securities, the payment of dividends, if any, on our common stock, amendments to our organizational documents, and the approval of significant corporate transactions, including mergers, sales of substantially all of our assets, distributions of our assets, the incurrence of indebtedness, and any incurrence of liens on our assets.

The interests of the Institutional Investors may be materially different than the interests of our other stakeholders. In addition, the Institutional Investors may have an interest in pursuing acquisitions, divestitures, and other transactions that, in their judgment, could enhance their investment, even though such transactions might involve risks to you. For example, the Institutional Investors may cause us to take actions or pursue strategies that could impact our ability to make payments under our Credit Facilities or cause a change of control. In addition, to the extent permitted by agreements governing our Credit Facilities, the Institutional Investors may cause us to pay dividends rather than make capital expenditures or repay debt. The Institutional Investors are in the business of making investments in companies and may from time to time acquire and hold interests in businesses that compete directly or indirectly with us. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that none of the Institutional Investors, any of their respective affiliates, or any director who is not employed by us (including any non-employee director who serves as one of our officers in both his director and officer capacities) or his or her affiliates will have any duty to refrain from engaging, directly or indirectly, in the same business activities or similar business activities or lines of business in which we operate. The Institutional Investors also may pursue acquisition opportunities that may be complementary to our business, and, as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us.

So long as the Institutional Investors continue to own a significant amount of our outstanding common stock, even if such amount is less than 50%, they will continue to be able to strongly influence or effectively control our decisions and, so long as each of the Institutional Investors continues to own shares of our outstanding common stock, they will have the ability to nominate individuals to our board of directors. See “Description of Capital Stock” and “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Stockholders Agreement.” In addition, the Institutional Investors, acting together, will be able to determine the outcome of all matters requiring stockholder approval and will be able to cause or prevent a change of control of our company or a change in the composition of our board of directors and could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of our company. The concentration of ownership could deprive you of an opportunity to receive a premium for your shares of common stock as part of a sale of our company and ultimately might affect the market price of our common stock.

We are an “emerging growth company” and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to “emerging growth companies” will make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions and relief from various reporting requirements that are applicable

TABLE OF CONTENTS

to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies.” In particular, while we are an “emerging growth company,” among other exemptions:

•

we will not be required to engage an independent registered public accounting firm to report on our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act,

•

we will be subject to reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and

•

we will not be required to comply with the requirement in Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Auditing Standard 3101, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When the Auditor Expresses an Unqualified Opinion, to communicate critical audit matters in the auditor’s report;

•

we will be permitted to present only two years of audited financial statements and only two years of related “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our periodic reports and registration statements, including in this prospectus;

•

we will not be required to disclose certain executive compensation related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the chief executive officer’s compensation to median employee compensation; or

•

we will not be required submit certain executive compensation matters to stockholder advisory votes, such as “say-on-pay,” “say-on-frequency,” and “say-on-golden parachutes.”

In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards, meaning that we can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to take advantage of this extended transition period, and as a result, our financial statements may not be comparable with similarly situated public companies.

We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest to occur of (1) our reporting of $1.24 billion or more in annual gross revenue; (2) our becoming a “large accelerated filer,” with at least $700 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates; (3) our issuance, in any three year period, of more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt; and (4) the fiscal year end following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial public offering.

We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less attractive if we rely on the exemptions and relief granted by the JOBS Act. For example, if we do not adopt a new or revised accounting standard, our future results of operations may not be as comparable to the results of operations of certain other companies in our industry that adopted such standards. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock, and our stock price may decline and/or become more volatile.

We have incurred significant increased costs and become subject to additional regulations and requirements as a result of becoming a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to compliance matters.

As a public company, we have incurred and will continue to incur significant legal, regulatory, finance, accounting, investor relations, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company, including costs associated with public company reporting requirements and costs of recruiting and retaining non-executive directors. We also have incurred and will continue to incur costs associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, and related rules implemented by the SEC, and Nasdaq. The expenses incurred by public companies for reporting and corporate governance purposes have been increasing. These rules and regulations have increased our legal and financial compliance costs and have made some activities more time-consuming and costly. Our management devotes a substantial amount of time to ensure that we comply with all of these requirements, diverting the attention of management away from revenue-producing activities. These laws and regulations also could make it more difficult or costly for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we may be forced to accept

TABLE OF CONTENTS

reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. These laws and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees, or as our executive officers. Furthermore, if we are unable to satisfy our obligations as a public company, we could be subject to delisting of our common stock, fines, sanctions, and other regulatory action and potentially civil litigation.

Failure to comply with requirements to design, implement, and maintain effective internal controls could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.

As a public company, we are subject to significant requirements for enhanced financial reporting and internal controls. The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company. If we are unable to establish or maintain appropriate internal financial reporting controls and procedures, it could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations on a timely basis, result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements, and harm our results of operations. In addition, we are required, pursuant to Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“Section 404”), to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in the second annual report following the completion of our initial public offering. This assessment must include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. The rules governing the standards that must be met for our management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing, and possible remediation. Testing and maintaining internal controls may divert our management’s attention from other matters that are important to our business. Once we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” our auditors will be required to issue an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal controls on an annual basis.

In connection with the implementation of the necessary procedures and practices related to internal control over financial reporting, we may identify deficiencies that we may not be able to remediate in time to meet the deadline imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for compliance with the requirements of Section 404. In addition, we may encounter problems or delays in completing the remediation of any deficiencies identified by us or our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with the issuance of their attestation report. Our testing, or the subsequent testing (if required) by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses. Any material weaknesses could result in a material misstatement of our annual or quarterly financial statements or disclosures that may not be prevented or detected.

We may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 or our independent registered public accounting firm may not issue an unqualified opinion. If either we are unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting or our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to provide us with an unqualified report (to the extent it is required to issue a report), investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.

The market price of our common stock has been volatile and may continue to fluctuate substantially, which could result in substantial losses for purchasers of our common stock.

The stock market has experienced extreme volatility in the past. This volatility often has been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. Since shares of our common stock were sold in our initial public offering in June 2024 at a price of $21.50 per share, our stock price has ranged from $20.26 to $45.49 through February 14, 2025. The market price of our common stock has fluctuated in the past and may continue to fluctuate substantially due to a number of factors such as those listed in “—Risks Related to our Business and our Industry” and the following:

•

results of operations that vary from the expectations of securities analysts and investors;

•

results of operations that vary from those of our competitors;

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•

changes in expectations as to our future financial performance, including financial estimates and investment recommendations by securities analysts and investors, or failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of our common stock;

•

changes in economic conditions for companies in our industry;

•

changes in market valuations of, or earnings and other announcements by, companies in our industry;

•

declines in the market prices of stocks generally, particularly those of healthcare technology companies or SaaS companies regardless of industry;

•

additions or departures of key management personnel;

•

strategic actions by us or our competitors;

•

announcements by us, our competitors, dispositions, joint ventures, other strategic relationships, or capital commitments;

•

future sales of our common stock by our officers, directors, and significant stockholders;

•

expiration of market standoff or lock-up agreements;

•

changes in preference of our clients and our market share;

•

changes in general economic or market conditions or trends in our industry or the economy as a whole;

•

changes in business or regulatory conditions;

•

future sales of our common stock or other securities;

•

investor perceptions of or the investment opportunity associated with our common stock relative to other investment alternatives;

•

the public’s response to press releases or other public announcements by us or third parties, including our filings with the SEC;

•

changes or proposed changes in laws or regulations or differing interpretations or enforcement thereof affecting our business;

•

announcements, claims and/or allegations relating to litigation, governmental investigations, or compliance with applicable laws and regulations;

•

guidance, if any, that we provide to the public, any changes in this guidance, or our failure to meet this guidance;

•

the development and sustainability of an active trading market for our stock;

•

changes in accounting principles; and

•

other events or factors, including those resulting from informational technology system failures and disruptions, data security incidents or breaches, natural disasters, war, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, acts of terrorism, or responses to these events.

Furthermore, the stock markets in general have experienced extreme volatility that, in some cases, may be unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, price volatility may be greater if the public float and trading volume of our common stock are low.

In the past, following periods of market volatility, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could have a substantial cost and divert resources and the attention of executive management from our business regardless of the outcome of such litigation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Your percentage ownership in us may be diluted by future issuances of our common stock, which could reduce your influence over matters on which stockholders vote.

After this offering we will have approximately 2.3 billion shares of common stock authorized but unissued. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue these shares of common stock, other equity or equity-linked securities, options, and other equity awards relating to our common stock for the consideration and on the terms and conditions established by our board of directors in its sole discretion, whether in connection with acquisitions or otherwise. Issuances of common stock or voting preferred stock would reduce your influence over matters on which our stockholders vote, and, in the case of issuances of preferred stock, would likely result in your interest in us being subject to the prior rights of holders of that preferred stock, if any.

We have reserved, or will reserve in the future, shares for issuance (i) for outstanding awards under our 2019 Stock Incentive Plan and for grants under our 2024 Equity Incentive Plan and (ii) under our 2024 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. See “Executive Compensation—Equity awards.” Any common stock that we issue, including under our 2019 Stock Incentive Plan, 2024 Equity Incentive Plan, 2024 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or other equity incentive plans that we may adopt in the future, would dilute the percentage ownership held by the investors who purchase common stock in this offering. In the future, we may also issue our securities in connection with investments or acquisitions. The amount of shares of our common stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock. Any issuance of additional securities in connection with investments or acquisitions may result in additional dilution to you.

Because we have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock, you may not receive any return on investment unless you sell your shares of common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

We have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock. The declaration, amount, and payment of any future dividends will be at the sole discretion of our board of directors, and will depend on, among other things, general and economic conditions, our results of operations and financial condition, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax, and regulatory restrictions and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, including restrictions under our credit agreements and other indebtedness we may incur, and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant. See “Dividend Policy.”

As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in our common stock unless you sell our common stock for a price greater than your purchase price.

Future sales, or the perception of future sales, by us or our existing stockholders in the public market following the completion of this offering could cause the market price for our common stock to decline.

The sale of substantial amounts of shares of our common stock in the public market after this offering, or the perception that such sales could occur, could harm the prevailing market price of shares of our common stock. These sales, or the possibility that these sales may occur, also might make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate.

The selling stockholders and certain of our executive officers and directors have signed lock-up agreements in connection with this offering that restrict the sale of the shares of our common stock and certain other securities held by them for 90 days from the date of this prospectus except with the prior written consent of J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC. Upon the expiration of such lock-up agreements, all of the outstanding 95,981,637 shares (or 93,281,637 shares, if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full) held by the selling stockholders, certain executive officers and directors will be eligible for resale in a public market, subject to vesting in some cases and to volume, manner of sale and other limitations under Rule 144.

In addition, pursuant to the Amended and Restated Registration Rights Agreement, dated as of June 10, 2024, by and among Waystar Holding Corp. and the other parties named therein, certain of our existing stockholders have the right, subject to certain conditions, to require us to register the sale of their shares of our common stock under the Securities Act. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Transactions—Registration Rights Agreement.” By exercising their demand registration rights and selling a large number of shares, such existing stockholders could cause the prevailing market price of our common stock to decline. Following completion of this offering, the shares covered by demand registration rights would represent approximately 55.7% of common stock outstanding (or 54.1% if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares). Registration of any of these outstanding shares of our common stock would result in such shares becoming freely tradable without compliance with Rule 144 upon effectiveness of the registration statement. See “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.”

We filed a registration statement on Form S-8 under the Securities Act to register common stock issued or reserved for issuance under our 2019 Stock Incentive Plan, 2024 Equity Incentive Plan, and 2024 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, which automatically became effective upon filing. Accordingly, shares registered under such registration statement are available for sale in the open market, unless such shares are subject to vesting restrictions or lock-up restrictions.

As restrictions on resale end, or if the existing stockholders exercise their registration rights, the market price of our shares of common stock could drop significantly if the holders of these restricted shares sell them or are perceived by the market as intending to sell them. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to raise additional funds through future offerings of our shares of common stock or other securities.

If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they downgrade our stock or our sector, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts. Furthermore, if one or more of the analysts who do cover us downgrade our stock or our industry, or the stock of any of our competitors, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Anti-takeover provisions in our organizational documents could delay or prevent a change of control.

Certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may have an anti-takeover effect and may delay, deter, or prevent a merger, acquisition, tender offer, takeover attempt, or other change of control transaction that a stockholder might consider in its best interest, including those attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares held by our stockholders. These provisions provide for, among other things:

•

a classified board of directors until the second annual meeting of stockholders after the date on which the Institutional Investors collectively own less than 15% in voting power of the then-outstanding power of the then-outstanding shares of stock of our Company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, as a result of which our board of directors will be divided into three classes until such time, with each class serving for staggered three-year terms;

•

the ability of our board of directors to issue one or more series of preferred stock;

•

advance notice requirements for nominations of directors by stockholders and for stockholders to include matters to be considered at our annual meetings;

•

certain limitations on convening special stockholder meetings and taking stockholder action by written consent;

•

during the Protective Period (as defined in “Description of Capital Stock”), the removal of directors only for cause and only upon the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 662∕3% of the shares of common stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors; and

•

during the Protective Period, the required approval of at least 662∕3% of the voting power of the outstanding shares of capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class, to adopt, amend, or repeal certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Further, EQT has the right to nominate to our board of directors (i) two nominees for so long as EQT beneficially owns 25% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock and (ii) one nominee for so long as EQT beneficially owns 5% or greater, but less than 25%, of our then outstanding common stock. CPPIB has the right to nominate to our board of directors one nominee for so long as CPPIB beneficially owns 5% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock. Bain has the right to nominate to our board of directors one nominee for so long as Bain beneficially owns 5% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock.

These anti-takeover provisions could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if the third party’s offer may be considered beneficial by many of our stockholders. These provisions also may have the effect of preventing changes in our board of directors and may make it more difficult to accomplish transactions that stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests. As a result, our stockholders may be limited in their ability to obtain a premium for their shares. See “Description of Capital Stock.”

Our board of directors is authorized to issue and designate shares of our preferred stock in additional series without stockholder approval.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes our board of directors, without the approval of our stockholders, to issue 100,000,000 shares of our preferred stock, subject to limitations prescribed by applicable law, rules and regulations and the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as shares of preferred stock in series, to establish from time to time the number of shares to be included in each such series and to fix the designation, powers, preferences, and rights of the shares of each such series, and the qualifications, limitations, or restrictions thereof. The powers, preferences, and rights of these additional series of preferred stock may be senior to or on parity with our common stock, which may reduce its value.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or if such court does not have jurisdiction, another state or the federal courts (as appropriate) located within the State of Delaware) will be the sole and exclusive forum for certain stockholder litigation matters, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees, or stockholders.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or if such court does not have jurisdiction, another state or the federal courts (as appropriate) located within the State of Delaware) shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the sole and exclusive forum for any (i) derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of us, (ii) action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any current or former director, officer, or other employee or stockholder of ours to us or our stockholders, (iii) action asserting a claim against us or any director or officer of ours arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws or as to which the DGCL confers jurisdiction on the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, or (iv) action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine of the State of Delaware. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation further provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the federal securities laws of the United States, including any claims under the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. However, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder and accordingly, we cannot be certain that a court would enforce such provision. See “Description of Capital Stock—Exclusive Forum.”

Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the forum provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, except our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived (and cannot waive) compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, other employees, or stockholders which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our

TABLE OF CONTENTS

amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus includes forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that reflect our current views with respect to, among other things, our operations and financial performance. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements are included throughout this prospectus, including in the sections entitled “Summary,” “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and “Business” and relate to matters such as our industry, business strategy, goals, and expectations concerning our market position, future operations, margins, profitability, capital expenditures, liquidity, and capital resources and other financial and operating information. We have used the words “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “future,” “will,” “seek,” “foreseeable,” the negative version of these words or similar terms and phrases to identify forward-looking statements in this prospectus.

The forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus are based on management’s current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance. The forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties, assumptions, or changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict or quantify. Our expectations, beliefs, and projections are expressed in good faith and we believe there is a reasonable basis for them. However, there can be no assurance that management’s expectations, beliefs, and projections will result or be achieved. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations due to changes in global, regional, or local economic, business, competitive, market, regulatory, and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. We believe that these factors include but are not limited to those described under “Risk Factors” above and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 incorporated by reference herein and the following:

•

our operation in a highly competitive industry;

•

our ability to retain our existing clients and attract new clients;

•

our ability to successfully execute on our business strategies in order to grow;

•

our ability to accurately assess the risks related to acquisitions and successfully integrate acquired businesses;

•

our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships;

•

the growth and success of our clients and overall healthcare transaction volumes;

•

consolidation in the healthcare industry;

•

our selling cycle of variable length to secure new client agreements;

•

our implementation cycle that is dependent on our clients’ timing and resources;

•

our dependence on our senior management team and certain key employees, and our ability to attract and retain highly skilled employees;

•

the accuracy of the estimates and assumptions we use to determine the size of our total addressable market;

•

our ability to develop and market new solutions, or enhance our existing solutions, to respond to technological changes, or evolving industry standards;

•

the interoperability, connectivity, and integration of our solutions with our clients’ and their vendors’ networks and infrastructures;

•

the performance and reliability of internet, mobile, and other infrastructure;

•

the consequences if we cannot obtain, process, use, disclose, or distribute the highly regulated data we require to provide our solutions;

•

our reliance on certain third-party vendors and providers;

•

any errors or malfunctions in our products and solutions;

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•

failure by our clients to obtain proper permissions or provide us with accurate and appropriate information;

•

the potential for embezzlement, identity theft, or other similar illegal behavior by our employees or vendors, and a failure of our employees or vendors to observe quality standards or adhere to environmental, social, and governance standards;

•

our compliance with the applicable rules of NACHA and the applicable requirements of card networks;

•

increases in card network fees and other changes to fee arrangements;

•

the effect of payer and provider conduct which we cannot control;

•

privacy concerns and security breaches or incidents relating to our platform;

•

the complex and evolving laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity;

•

our ability to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property rights;

•

our ability to use or license data and integrate third-party technologies;

•

our use of “open source” software;

•

legal proceedings initiated by third parties alleging that we are infringing or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights;

•

claims that our employees, consultants, or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties;

•

the heavily regulated industry in which we conduct business;

•

the uncertain and evolving healthcare regulatory and political framework;

•

health care laws and data privacy and security laws and regulations governing our Processing of personal information;

•

reduced revenues in response to changes to the healthcare regulatory landscape;

•

legal, regulatory, and other proceedings that could result in adverse outcomes;

•

consumer protection laws and regulations;

•

contractual obligations requiring compliance with certain provisions of BSA/AML laws and regulations;

•

existing laws that regulate our ability to engage in certain marketing activities;

•

our full compliance with website accessibility standards;

•

any changes in our tax rates, the adoption of new tax legislation, or exposure to additional tax liabilities;

•

limitations on our ability to use our NOLs to offset future taxable income;

•

losses due to asset impairment charges;

•

restrictive covenants in the agreements governing our Credit Facilities;

•

interest rate fluctuations;

•

unavailability of additional capital on acceptable terms or at all;

•

the impact of general macroeconomic conditions;

•

our history of net losses and our ability to achieve or maintain profitability;

•

the interests of the Institutional Investors may be different than the interests of other holders of our securities;

•

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•

the other factors discussed elsewhere in this prospectus, including in “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this prospectus. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements.

Any forward-looking statements made by us in this prospectus speak only as of the date of this prospectus and are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included in this prospectus. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise, except as may be required by any applicable securities laws.

Investors and others should note that we routinely announce financial and other material information using our Investor Relations website (investors.waystar.com), SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls and webcasts. We use these channels of distribution to communicate with our investors and members of the public about our company, our services, and other items of interest. Information contained on our website is not part of this prospectus or our other filings with the SEC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

USE OF PROCEEDS

The selling stockholders will receive all of the net proceeds from the sale of shares of common stock in this offering. We are not selling any shares of common stock under this prospectus and will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders or if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares. The selling stockholders will bear the underwriting commissions and discounts attributable to their sale of our common stock, and expenses incurred by the selling stockholders for brokerage, accounting, tax services, or any other expenses incurred by the selling stockholders, except we will bear the fees and expenses of up to two counsels for the selling stockholders. We will bear all other costs, fees, and expenses incurred in effecting the registration of the shares covered by this prospectus, including, without limitation, all registration and filing fees, and fees and expenses of our counsel and our independent registered public accountants. See “Principal and Selling Stockholders.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DIVIDEND POLICY

We currently expect to retain all future earnings for use in the operation and expansion of our business and have no current plans to pay dividends on our common stock. The declaration, amount, and payment of any future dividends will be at the sole discretion of our board of directors, and will depend on, among other things, general and economic conditions, our results of operations and financial condition, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, including restrictions under our credit agreements and other indebtedness we may incur, and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant. If we elect to pay such dividends in the future, we may reduce or discontinue entirely the payment of such dividends at any time.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of December 31, 2024.

You should read this table together with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto, each of which is included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 that is incorporated by reference herein.

	As of December 31, 2024
	($ in thousands, except par value)
Cash and cash equivalents		$	182,133
Debt:
Revolving Credit Facility(1)			—
First Lien Credit Facility(1)			1,163,545
Receivables Facility(1)			80,000
Total debt			1,243,545
Stockholders’ equity:
Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share, 2,500,000,000 shares authorized; 172,108,240 shares issued and outstanding			1,722
Additional paid-in capital			3,298,083
Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)			881
Accumulated deficit			(220,900)
Total stockholders’ equity			3,079,786
Total capitalization			4,323,331

(1)

See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Indebtedness” included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 that is incorporated by reference herein for more information regarding our Revolving Credit Facility, First Lien Credit Facility, and Receivables Facility.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRINCIPAL AND SELLING STOCKHOLDERS

The following table contains information about the beneficial ownership of our common stock as of February 12, 2025, (i) immediately prior to the consummation of this offering and (ii) as adjusted to reflect the sale of shares of our common stock offered by this prospectus by:

•

each individual or entity known by us to beneficially own more than 5% of our outstanding common stock;

•

each named executive officer;

•

each of our directors;

•

all of our directors and executive officers as a group; and

•

all selling stockholders.

Our calculation of the percentage of beneficial ownership prior to and after the offering is based on 172,151,839 shares of our outstanding common stock as of February 12, 2025.

Beneficial ownership and percentage ownership are determined in accordance with the rules and regulations of the SEC. Under SEC rules, a person is deemed to be a “beneficial owner” of a security if that person has or shares voting power or investment power, which includes the power to dispose of or to direct the disposition of such security. A person is also deemed to be a beneficial owner of any securities of which that person has a right to acquire beneficial ownership within 60 days. Securities that can be so acquired are deemed to be outstanding for purposes of computing such person’s ownership percentage, but not for purposes of computing any other person’s percentage. Under these rules, more than one person may be deemed to be a beneficial owner of the same securities and a person may be deemed to be a beneficial owner of securities as to which such person has no economic interest. Except as indicated in the footnotes to the following table or pursuant to applicable community property laws, we believe, based on information furnished to us, that each stockholder named in the table has sole voting and investment power with respect to the shares set forth opposite such stockholder’s name.

For further information regarding material transactions between us and certain of our stockholders, see “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.”

The table below excludes any purchases that may be made in this offering. See “Underwriting.” Unless otherwise indicated in the footnotes, the address of each of the individuals named below is: c/o Waystar Holding Corp., 1550 Digital Drive, #300, Lehi, Utah 84043.

					Shares beneficially owned after the offering
	Shares of our common stock beneficially owned prior to the offering				Excluding exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares						Including exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares
Name of Beneficial Owner	Shares		%		Shares Offered Hereby		Shares		%		Shares Offered Hereby		Shares		%
Greater than 5% Stockholders
EQT(1)		48,658,517		28.3%		7,693,155		40,965,362		23.8%		8,847,128		39,811,389		23.1%
CPPIB(2)		37,209,454		21.6%		5,883,001		31,326,453		18.2%		6,765,451		30,444,003		17.7%
Bain(3)		27,980,417		16.3%		4,423,844		23,556,573		13.7%		5,087,421		22,892,996		13.3%
Named Executive Officers and Directors
Matthew J. Hawkins(4)		3,745,655		2.1%		—		3,745,655		2.1%		—		3,745,655		2.1%
Eric L. (Ric) Sinclair III(5)		536,677		*		—		536,677		*		—		536,677		*
Christopher L. Schremser(6)		536,677		*		—		536,677		*		—		536,677		*
John Driscoll(7)		296,548		*		—		296,548		*		—		296,548		*
Samuel Blaichman(8)		—		—		—		—		—		—		—		—
Robert A. DeMichiei(9)		103,117		*		—		103,117		*		—		103,117		*

TABLE OF CONTENTS

					Shares beneficially owned after the offering
	Shares of our common stock beneficially owned prior to the offering				Excluding exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares						Including exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares
Name of Beneficial Owner	Shares		%		Shares Offered Hereby		Shares		%		Shares Offered Hereby		Shares		%
Priscilla Hung(10)		8,066		*		—		8,066		*		—		8,066		*
Eric C. Liu(11)		—		—		—		—		—		—		—		—
Heidi G. Miller(12)		65,815		*		—		65,815		*		—		65,815		*
Paul G. Moskowitz(13)		—		—		—		—		—		—		—		—
Vivian E. Riefberg(14)		8,066		*		—		8,066		*		—		8,066		*
Ethan Waxman		—		—		—		—		—		—		—		—
All executive officers and directors as a group (17 persons)(15)		6,465,819		3.6%		—		6,465,819		3.6%		—		6,465,819		3.6%
Other Selling Stockholders

Less than 1%

(1)

Consists of shares of common stock held directly by Derby LuxCo S.à r.l. (“Derby LuxCo”). Several investment vehicles collectively make up the fund known as “EQT VIII.” EQT VIII owns 100% of the membership interests in Derby LuxCo. EQT Fund Management S.à r.l. (“EFMS”) has exclusive responsibility for the management and control of the business and affairs of investment vehicles which constitute the majority of the total commitments to EQT VIII. EFMS is overseen by a board that acts by majority approval. The individual members of such board are Sara Huda, Magnus Sjöcrona, Leif Patrik Burnäs, Peter Veldman, and Christiaan Snyders. The registered address of EFMS and Derby LuxCo is 51A, Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

(2)

CPPIB, through its wholly-owned subsidiary CPP Investment Board Private Holdings (4) Inc., beneficially owns 37,209,454 shares of common stock. Investment and voting power with regard to shares held by CPP Investment Board Private Holdings (4) Inc. rests with CPPIB. John Graham is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CPPIB and, in such capacity, may be deemed to have voting and dispositive power with respect to the shares of common stock beneficially owned by CPPIB. Mr. Graham disclaims beneficial ownership over any such shares. The address of CPPIB is One Queen Street East, Suite 2500, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 2W5, Canada.

(3)

Consists of 4,043,481 shares of common stock held directly by BCPE Derby Investor, LP (“BCPE Derby”) and 23,936,936 shares of common stock held directly by BCPE Derby (DE) SPV, LP (“BCPE Derby SPV”). Bain Capital Investors, LLC (“BCI”) is the manager of Bain Capital Partners XI, LP, which is the general partner of Bain Capital Fund XI, LP (“Fund XI”). Fund XI is the (i) sole member of BCPE Derby GP, LLC, which is the general partner of BCPE Derby and (ii) sole member of BCPE Derby (DE) SPV, LLC, which is the general partner of BCPE Derby SPV. As a result, BCI may be deemed to share voting and dispositive power with respect to the shares held by BCPE Derby and BCPE Derby SPV. Voting and investment decisions with respect to securities held BCPE Derby and BCPE Derby SPV are made by the partners of BCI, of whom there are three or more and none of whom individually has the power to direct such decisions. The address of BCPE Derby and BCPE Derby SPV is c/o Bain Capital Private Equity, LP, 200 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA 02116.

(4)

Consists of 3,745,655 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025, 500,000 of which were held by an irrevocable trust for which Mr. Hawkins serves as trustee and 3,245,655 of which were held directly by Mr. Hawkins.

(5)

Consists of 536,677 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025.

(6)

Consists of 536,677 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

(7)

Includes 225,620 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025.

(8)

The address of Mr. Blaichman is c/o CPPIB, One Queen Street East, Suite 2500, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 2W5, Canada.

(9)

Includes 80,050 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025.

(10)

Consists of 8,066 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025.

(11)

The address of Mr. Liu is c/o EQT Partners, 1114 Avenue of the Americas, 45th Floor, New York, New York 10036.

(12)

Includes 48,030 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025.

(13)

The address of Mr. Moskowitz is c/o Bain Capital Private Equity, LP, 200 Clarendon Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116.

(14)

Consists of 8,066 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025.

(15)

Includes 5,913,254 shares issuable upon the exercise of options exercisable within 60 days following February 12, 2025.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK

The following is a description of the material terms of, and is qualified in its entirety by, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, which are filed as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part. For a complete description of our capital stock, you should refer to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, and the applicable provisions of Delaware law. In this section, “we,” “us,” “our,” “the Company” and “our Company” refer to Waystar Holding Corp. and not to any of its subsidiaries and “Institutional Investors” refers to EQT, CPPIB, and Bain, in each case, so long as they own shares of common stock of our Company.

Our purpose is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which corporations may be organized under the DGCL. Our authorized capital stock consists of 2,500,000,000 shares of our common stock, $0.01 par value per share; and 100,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.01 per share. No shares of preferred stock will be issued or outstanding immediately after the offering contemplated by this prospectus. Unless our board of directors determines otherwise, we will issue all shares of our capital stock in uncertificated form.

Common Stock

Voting rights

Each holder of our common stock is entitled to one vote per share on all matters submitted to a vote of the stockholders. The holders of our common stock do not have cumulative voting rights in the election of directors.

Dividend rights

The holders of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends as may be declared from time to time by our board of directors out of legally available funds. See the section titled “Dividend Policy” for additional information.

Liquidation

In the event of our liquidation, dissolution, or winding up and after payment in full of all amounts required to be paid to creditors and to the holders of preferred stock having liquidation preferences, if any, holders of our common stock will be entitled to share ratably in the net assets legally available for distribution to stockholders.

Rights and preferences

Holders of our common stock have no preemptive, conversion, or subscription rights, and there are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to our common stock.

Fully paid and non-assessable

All shares of our common stock that will be outstanding at the time of the completion of the offering will be fully paid and non-assessable.

The rights, powers, preferences, and privileges of holders of our common stock will be subject to those of the holders of any shares of our preferred stock we may authorize and issue in the future.

Preferred Stock

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes our board of directors to establish one or more series of preferred stock (including convertible preferred stock). Unless required by law or by the applicable stock exchange, the authorized shares of preferred stock will be available for issuance without further action by you. Our board of directors may determine, with respect to any series of preferred stock, the terms and rights of that series, including:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•

the designation of the series;

•

the number of shares of the series, which our board of directors may, except where otherwise provided in the preferred stock designation, increase (but not above the total number of authorized shares of the class) or decrease (but not below the number of shares then outstanding);

•

whether dividends, if any, will be cumulative or non-cumulative and the dividend rate of the series;

•

the dates at which dividends, if any, will be payable;

•

the redemption rights and price or prices, if any, for shares of the series;

•

the terms and amounts of any sinking fund provided for the purchase or redemption of shares of the series;

•

the amounts payable on shares of the series in the event of any voluntary or involuntary liquidation, dissolution or winding-up of the affairs of the Company;

•

whether the shares of the series will be convertible into shares of any other class or series, or any other security, of the Company or any other corporation and, if so, the specification of the other class or series or other security, the conversion price or prices or rate or rates, any rate adjustments, the date or dates as of which the shares will be convertible and all other terms and conditions upon which the conversion may be made;

•

restrictions on the issuance of shares of the same series or of any other class or series of our capital stock; and

•

the voting rights, if any, of the holders of the series.

We may issue a series of preferred stock that could, depending on the terms of the series, impede or discourage an acquisition attempt or other transaction that some, or a majority, of the holders of our common stock might believe to be in their best interests or in which the holders of our common stock might receive a premium for their common stock over the market price of the common stock. In addition, the issuance of preferred stock may adversely affect the holders of our common stock by restricting dividends on the common stock, diluting the voting power of the common stock or subordinating the liquidation rights of the common stock. In addition, the issuance of preferred stock could have the effect of delaying, deferring, or preventing a change of control, or other corporate action. As a result of these or other factors, the issuance of preferred stock may have an adverse impact on the market price of our common stock.

Dividends

The DGCL permits a corporation to declare and pay dividends out of “surplus” or, if there is no “surplus,” out of its net profits for the fiscal year in which the dividend is declared and/or the preceding fiscal year. “Surplus” is defined as the excess of the net assets of the corporation over the amount determined to be the capital of the corporation by our board of directors. The capital of the corporation is typically calculated to be (and cannot be less than) the aggregate par value of all issued shares of capital stock. Net assets equal the fair value of the total assets minus total liabilities. The DGCL also provides that dividends may not be paid out of net profits if, after the payment of the dividend, capital is less than the capital represented by the outstanding stock of all classes having a preference upon the distribution of assets.

Declaration and payment of any dividend will be subject to the discretion of our board of directors. The time and amount of dividends will be dependent upon our financial condition, operations, cash requirements, and availability, debt repayment obligations, capital expenditure needs, and restrictions in our debt instruments, industry trends, the provisions of Delaware law affecting the payment of dividends to stockholders and any other factors our board of directors may consider relevant.

Anti-takeover Effects of Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws, and Certain Provisions of Delaware Law

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, and the DGCL, which are summarized in the following paragraphs, contain provisions that are intended to enhance the

TABLE OF CONTENTS

likelihood of continuity and stability in the composition of our board of directors. These provisions are intended to avoid costly takeover battles, reduce our vulnerability to a hostile change of control, and enhance the ability of our board of directors to maximize stockholder value in connection with any unsolicited offer to acquire us. However, these provisions may have an anti-takeover effect and may delay, deter, or prevent a merger or acquisition of the Company by means of a tender offer, a proxy contest, or other takeover attempt that a stockholder might consider is in its best interest, including those attempts that might result in a premium over the prevailing market price for the shares of common stock held by stockholders.

Authorized but unissued capital stock

Delaware law does not require stockholder approval for any issuance of authorized shares. However, the listing requirements of Nasdaq, which apply so long as our common stock remains listed on Nasdaq, require stockholder approval of certain issuances equal to or exceeding 20% of the then-outstanding voting power or then-outstanding number of shares of common stock. These additional shares may be used for a variety of corporate purposes, including future public offerings to raise additional capital or to facilitate acquisitions.

Our board of directors may issue shares of preferred stock on terms calculated to discourage, delay, or prevent a change of control of the Company or the removal of our management. Moreover, our authorized but unissued shares of preferred stock are available for future issuances without stockholder approval and could be utilized for a variety of corporate purposes, including future offerings to raise additional capital, acquisitions, or employee benefit plans.

One of the effects of the existence of unissued and unreserved common stock or preferred stock may be to enable our board of directors to issue shares to persons friendly to current management, which issuance could render more difficult or discourage an attempt to obtain control of the Company by means of a merger, tender offer, proxy contest, or otherwise, and thereby protect the continuity of our management and possibly deprive our stockholders of opportunities to sell their shares of common stock at prices higher than prevailing market prices.

Director nomination rights

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our board of directors will consist of not more than ten members and not less than the number of directors as is required to allow for the election of each director nominee as described below. EQT will have the right to nominate to our board of directors (i) two nominees for so long as EQT beneficially owns 25% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock, and (ii) one nominee for so long as EQT beneficially owns 5% or greater, but less than 25% of our then-outstanding common stock. CPPIB will have the right to nominate to our board of directors one nominee for so long as CPPIB beneficially owns 5% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock. Bain will have the right to nominate to our board of directors one nominee for so long as Bain beneficially owns 5% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock. In addition, we will cause the nomination of five independent director nominees as well as the nomination of the person who, as of the date of nomination, is then-serving as our Chief Executive Officer.

In addition, EQT will have the right to designate the chairperson of our board of directors for so long as it beneficially owns at least 20% of our then-outstanding common stock, with the consent of CPPIB (not to be unreasonably withheld).

Further, for so long as EQT, CPPIB, and Bain collectively beneficially own 5% or greater of our then-outstanding common stock, (i) the Bain director nominee will be appointed to serve on the Audit, Compliance, & Risk Committee, (ii) the CPPIB director nominee and one EQT director nominee will be appointed to serve on the Talent & Compensation Committee, and (iii) the CPPIB director nominee and one EQT director nominee will be appointed to serve on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, subject to certain exceptions.

Classified board of directors

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, subject to the right of holders of any series of preferred stock, our board of directors will be divided into three classes of directors, with the

TABLE OF CONTENTS

classes to be as nearly equal in number as possible, and with the directors serving three-year terms, with only one class of directors being elected at each annual meeting of stockholders. At the second annual meeting of stockholders after the date on which the Institutional Investors collectively own less than 15% in voting power of the then-outstanding power of the then-outstanding shares of stock of our Company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors (the “Triggering Annual Meeting”), and each annual meeting of stockholders thereafter, all directors shall be elected to hold office for a one-year term expiring at the next annual meeting of stockholders. Pursuant to such procedures, effective as of the Triggering Annual Meeting, our board of directors will no longer be classified under Section 141(d) of the DGCL and directors shall no longer be divided into three classes. As a result, prior to the Triggering Annual Meeting, approximately one-third of our board of directors will be elected each year. The classification of directors prior to the Triggering Annual Meeting has the effect of making it more difficult for stockholders to change the composition of our board of directors. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide that, subject to any rights of holders of preferred stock to elect additional directors under specified circumstances, the number of directors will be fixed from time to time exclusively pursuant to a resolution adopted by our board of directors; however, if at any time the Institutional Investors collectively own at least 40% in voting power of the then-outstanding shares of stock of our Company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, the stockholders may also fix the number of directors.

Business combinations

We have opted out of Section 203 of the DGCL; however, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains similar provisions providing that we may not engage in certain “business combinations” with any “interested stockholder” for a three-year period following the time that the stockholder became an interested stockholder, unless:

•

prior to such time, our board of directors approved either the business combination or the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder;

•

upon consummation of the transaction which resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, the interested stockholder owned at least 85% of our voting stock outstanding at the time the transaction commenced, excluding certain shares;

•

at or subsequent to that time, the business combination is approved by our board of directors and by the affirmative vote of holders of at least 662∕3% of our outstanding voting stock that is not owned by the interested stockholder; or

•

the stockholder became an interested stockholder inadvertently and (i) as soon as practicable divested itself of sufficient ownership to cease to be an interested stockholder and (ii) had not been an interested stockholder but for the inadvertent acquisition of ownership within three years of the business combination.

Generally, a “business combination” includes a merger, asset, or stock sale or other transaction resulting in a financial benefit to the interested stockholder. Subject to certain exceptions, an “interested stockholder” is a person who, together with that person’s affiliates and associates, owns, or within the previous three years owned, 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock. For purposes of this section only, “voting stock” has the meaning given to it in Section 203 of the DGCL.

Under certain circumstances, these provisions make it more difficult for a person who would be an “interested stockholder” to effect various business combinations with our company for a three-year period. These provisions may encourage companies interested in acquiring our Company to negotiate in advance with our board of directors because the stockholder approval requirement would be avoided if our board of directors approves either the business combination or the transaction which results in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder. These provisions also may have the effect of preventing changes in our board of directors and may make it more difficult to accomplish transactions that stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that each of the Institutional Investors, and any of their respective direct or indirect transferees and any group as to which such persons or entities are a party, does not constitute an “interested stockholder” for purposes of these provisions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Removal of directors; vacancies

Under the DGCL, unless otherwise provided in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, directors serving on a classified board may be removed by the stockholders only for cause. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, other than directors elected by holders of our preferred stock, if any, directors may be removed with or without cause upon the affirmative vote of a majority in voting power of all outstanding shares of stock entitled to vote thereon, voting together as a single class; provided, however, at any time commencing on the day on which the Institutional Investors collectively beneficially own less than 40% in voting power of the then-outstanding shares of stock of our company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors and ending immediately following the final adjournment of the Triggering Annual Meeting (such period, the “Protective Period”), directors may only be removed for cause, and only by the affirmative vote of holders of at least 662∕3% in voting power of all the then-outstanding shares of stock of our company entitled to vote thereon, voting together as a single class. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will also provide that, subject to the rights granted to one or more series of preferred stock then outstanding or the rights granted pursuant to the Stockholders Agreement, any newly created directorship on our board of directors that results from an increase in the number of directors and any vacancies on our board of directors will be filled only by the affirmative vote of a majority of the remaining directors, even if less than a quorum, or by a sole remaining director or by the stockholders; provided, however, at any time when the Institutional Investors collectively beneficially own less than 40% in voting power of the then-outstanding shares of stock of our company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, any newly created directorship on our board of directors that results from an increase in the number of directors and any vacancy occurring in our board of directors may only be filled by a majority of the directors then in office, although less than a quorum, or by a sole remaining director (and not by the stockholders). Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our board of directors may increase the number of directors by the affirmative vote of a majority of the directors or, at any time when the Institutional Investors collectively beneficially own at least 40% of the voting power of the then-outstanding shares of stock of our Company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, of the stockholders.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, EQT, CPPIB, or Bain, as applicable, shall have the exclusive right to remove their respective nominees from our board of directors, with or without cause. For so long as EQT, CPPIB, or Bain have the right to nominate their respective directors, the shares of common stock held by EQT, CPPIB, or Bain, as applicable, shall be the only shares entitled to vote on the removal without cause of any of their respective nominees, and the shares of common stock owned by any holders as of the record date for determining stockholders entitled to vote thereon shall have no voting rights on such matter.

No cumulative voting

Under Delaware law, the right to vote cumulatively does not exist unless the certificate of incorporation specifically authorizes cumulative voting. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not authorize cumulative voting. Therefore, stockholders holding a majority in voting power of the then-outstanding shares of our stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors are able to elect all of our directors.

Special stockholder meetings

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that special meetings of our stockholders may be called at any time only by or at the direction of our board of directors or the chairman of our board of directors; provided, however, at any time when the Institutional Investors beneficially own, in the aggregate, at least 40% in voting power of the then-outstanding shares of stock of our Company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, special meetings of our stockholders may be called at any time by or at the direction of our board of directors or the chairman of our board of directors and shall be called by the secretary of our company at the request of at least two of the Institutional Investors. Our amended and restated bylaws prohibit the conduct of any business at a special meeting other than as specified in the notice for such meeting. These provisions may have the effect of deferring, delaying, or discouraging hostile takeovers, or changes in control or management of the Company.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Requirements for advance notification of director nominations and stockholder proposals

Our amended and restated bylaws establish advance notice procedures with respect to stockholder proposals and the nomination of candidates for election as directors, other than nominations made as provided in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, the Stockholders Agreement or by or at the direction of our board of directors or a committee of our board of directors. In order for any matter to be “properly brought” before a meeting, a stockholder will have to comply with advance notice requirements and provide us with certain information. Generally, to be timely, a stockholder’s notice must be received at our principal executive offices not less than 90 days nor more than 120 days prior to the first anniversary date of the immediately preceding annual meeting of stockholders. Our amended and restated bylaws also specify requirements as to the form and content of a stockholder’s notice. Our amended and restated bylaws allow the chairman of the meeting at a meeting of the stockholders to adopt rules and regulations for the conduct of meetings which may have the effect of precluding the conduct of certain business at a meeting if the rules and regulations are not followed. These notice requirements will not apply to the Institutional Investors and their affiliates for as long as the Stockholders Agreement remains in effect. These provisions may also deter, delay, or discourage a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to influence or obtain control of the Company.

Stockholder action by written consent

Pursuant to Section 228 of the DGCL, any action required to be taken at any annual or special meeting of the stockholders may be taken without a meeting, without prior notice and without a vote if a consent or consents in writing, setting forth the action so taken, is signed by the holders of outstanding stock having not less than the minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize or take such action at a meeting at which all shares of our stock entitled to vote thereon were present and voted, unless our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides otherwise. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation precludes stockholder action by written consent at any time when the Institutional Investors collectively beneficially own less than 40% in voting power of the then-outstanding shares of stock of our Company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, othe

SEC Form S-1 filed by Waystar Holding Corp.