Moving into 2025, there was some momentum for a rebirth of the IPO marketplace. 2024 had a few successful public launches: Reddit, Astera Labs, and Rubrik trade well above their issuance pricing. Even relatively weak IPOs, such as ServiceTitan are near their issue price, a far cry from some of the flops in 2021 that put the breaks to the IPO market. With hundreds of companies that were minted as unicorns from 2019-2021 and have not raised capital since, at some point there should be a return to a robust IPO marketplace.
Despite the positive reception of new issuants in 2024, 2025 has been relatively muted so far. Post-election exuberance has turned to concerns about tariffs and an economic downturn. Subsequently, the public markets have grown more volatile than most periods of the last few years. Companies like Turo, which was a top IPO candidate for all of 2024, have indicated that will stay private to avoid the turbulence. Headwinds aside, several companies had filed S1s in recent months and it is easy to imagine a flood of companies if IPOs are well received.
A few companies to watch:
1. Coreweave -The cloud computing firm has hired bankers to raise $4B through an IPO purportedly valuing the company at $35B. This could be an interesting litmus test for investors’ interest in AI-related infrastructure plays beyond Nvidia.
2. Chime – The US-based neobank filed for a confidential S1 late in 2024. They have not raised since 2021, when they raised $1B at the height of private investor interest in fintech plays. A successful float could coax other fintech companies such as Stripe into the public markets. A flop could make similarly situated neobanks look to consolidate.
3. Klarna – The buy now, pay later leader filed an S1 late in 2024 as well. All signs points to a public offering soon, but the company is uniquely exposed to a potential economic downturn. The recent sharp decrease in consumer confidence is a significant headwind for a public offering.
4. Voyager Space – The space focused national security company filed a confidential S1 last month. Few sectors have been as hot in the private market as space and military tech. Voyager is well positioned to capitalize on this investor demand, but is also exposed to instability in government contracting.
This article is written by Loren Heger. Mr. Heger serves as the Chief Compliance Officer and Managing Principal of FNEX Capital’s FINRA Member Broker/Dealer. He specializes in secondary transactions of late stage, venture-backed companies. He has facilitated institutional transactions of shares in companies such as Lyft, Pinterest, Palantir and SpaceX. He holds FINRA Series 82, 63 and 24 licenses.
