A RECORD-BREAKING YEAR FOR IPOS
AngelList Weekly, November 15, 20182019 is shaping up to be a breakout year for tech IPOs.
The economy is strong, unemployment rates are low, and investor optimism is high with rising tech valuations. Airbnb, Slack, and Lyft could all go public within the next year, and despite its slowing growth, Uber is among the most anticipated offerings in years.
The ride-sharing company's latest valuation sits just over $70 billion, but recent estimates could have it pegged at upwards of $100 billion. Even though Uber announced $1.07 billion in third-quarter losses Wednesday, it still has the potential to be the biggest IPO in history. Alibaba currently holds that title for its $25 billion offering in 2014, but at a rumored valuation of $120 billion, Uber would only need to offer a fraction of its shares to take the crown.
For comparison, Uber’s possible $120 billion valuation would be roughly four times Airbnb’s current $31 billion, eight times Lyft’s $15 billion, and over 17 times Slack’s $7 billion.
The numbers are staggering in their own right, but their potential is even more impressive when you consider activity from earlier this year. In the first quarter of 2018, "the median IPO size for U.S., VC-backed companies was $110 million," according to a Pitchbook analysis.
By the end of September, 173 U.S. IPOs had raised just over $45 billion, according to data from PwC. That's almost a 50% increase compared to the same period in 2017. And while 2018 has seen the strongest IPO activity since 2014, if the tech giants currently expected to go public in 2019 follow through, we’ll have a front-row seat to record-breaking activity.
As Bloomberg aptly described it: "The last time three 11-figure U.S. tech companies went public in the same year, Bill Clinton was president and Apple Inc. was worth less than 1% of Microsoft Corp. That was 2000, when, with air leaking out of the dot-com bubble, the company that made the Palm Pilot was valued at $21 billion."
Source: https://angel.co/newsletters/a-record-breaking-year-for-ipos-111518
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