Benefitfocus Inc., the Daniel Island company whose software lets workers shop for and enroll in health insurance and other benefits, becomes a public company today. Its shares are scheduled to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol BNFT, the company said.

Benefitfocus priced its initial public offering Tuesday at $26.50 a share. That is above the range of $21.50 to $24.50 a share that it set in its preliminary prospectus.

The deal also grew. A preliminary prospectus dated Sept. 16 covered 4.5 million shares. The final prospectus, dated Sept. 17, covers 4,935,000 shares, worth about $130.8 million at the offering price.

Who gets the money

Benefitfocus is selling 3 million new shares. After underwriting discounts of about $1.86 a share, it stands to collect about $73.9 million before expenses, according to the prospectus.

The other 1,935,000 shares come from funds affiliated with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which will collect about $47.7 million before expenses. The selling stockholders added 435,000 shares to the deal between the preliminary and final prospectuses.

“Benefitfocus will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares being sold by the selling stockholders,” the prospectus says.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Deutsche Bank Securities lead the underwriting group, which also includes Jefferies, Canaccord Genuity, Piper Jaffray and Raymond James. The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy up to 740,250 more shares from the selling stockholders. Shares are expected to be delivered on or about Sept. 23.

The Goldman funds bought into Benefitfocus in February 2007, paying $105.7 million for preferred stock at $7.52 a share, the prospectus says.

Still a controlled company

Even after selling, the Goldman funds will own about 49.85% of Benefitfocus’ common stock, or about 46.81% if the underwriters buy all of the extra shares.

The Goldman funds, Oak Investment Partners XII and the company’s two founders will together hold about 78.67% of the voting power after the offering. That makes Benefitfocus a “controlled company” under Nasdaq rules. The status exempts it from requirements that a majority of its directors be independent and that its compensation and nominating committees be made up entirely of independent directors.

Oak Investment Partners paid $30 million for its stake in August 2010 and will own about 10%. Co-founder and Executive Chairman Mason R. Holland Jr. will hold about 11.6%, and co-founder Shawn A. Jenkins, the president and chief executive, about 11.8%, counting options they can exercise. Neither founder is selling shares.

About 24.3 million shares will be outstanding after the offering, the prospectus says. By Charleston Business Report’s calculation, those shares are worth about $644 million at the $26.50 offering price.

What Benefitfocus sells

Benefitfocus describes itself as “a leading provider of cloud-based benefits software solutions for consumers, employers, insurance carriers, and brokers.”

Its web-based platform gives employees one place to choose and manage health, dental, life and disability coverage, along with voluntary benefits such as critical illness and wellness programs. The company sells subscriptions, typically through annual contracts with employers and multiyear contracts with insurance carriers.

More than 20 million people used the platform as of June 30, the company says. In 2012, it served 286 large employers, up from 121 in 2009, and 34 insurance carriers, up from 28. It mainly targets employers with more than 1,000 workers and estimates there are about 18,000 of them in the United States.

Revenue rose 18.8% in 2012 to $81.7 million and grew 24.5% in the first half of 2013 to $48.2 million. Employer revenue, the faster-growing segment, jumped 49% last year to $23.8 million. Revenue from insurance carriers rose 9.7% to $58 million.

The company is still losing money. It lost $14.7 million in 2012 and $15.2 million in the first six months of this year. It plans to use the offering proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes, including new products, capital spending and possible acquisitions.

The prospectus also ties the company’s prospects to the federal health care law, which it says “introduces a new distribution model in the form of healthcare exchanges.” Insurers, brokers and benefits outsourcers are also setting up private exchanges, the company says, and it expects insurers to need new technology to attract members through them.

Who runs it

Jenkins, 46, and Holland, 48, founded Benefitfocus in June 2000 and have led it since, according to the prospectus. Both came from American Pensions Inc., which Holland founded in 1988. Jenkins was a vice president there from 1995 to 2000. Holland also acquired jet maker Eclipse Aerospace Inc. in May 2009 and is its chairman and chief executive. Milton A. Alpern is Benefitfocus’ chief financial officer.

The company had about 800 full-time employees, whom it calls associates, on June 30. About 357 of them worked in technology development and deployment. The prospectus says it currently employs about 862.

A landlord with ties to the founders

Benefitfocus leases its headquarters from Daniel Island Executive Center LLC. Holland’s company, Holland Properties LLC, owns a supermajority interest in the landlord, and Jenkins owns the rest, the prospectus says.

The company occupies about 65,000 square feet on the Daniel Island Executive Center campus under a lease that runs to 2021, plus a second building of about 78,000 square feet under a lease that runs to 2024. It spent $3.6 million on those leases in 2012, and $47.8 million in payments remained due as of July 31.

Benefitfocus also leases offices in Greenville, San Francisco and Tulsa, Oklahoma.