Start Up’s to IPO’s this year?

Tech News

Last year, investors hoped for a strong 2024 IPO (initial public offering) market, but as we near the middle of the year, those dreams have faded or even disappeared.

In March and April, four venture-backed tech companies went public: Reddit, Astera Labs, Ibotta, and Rubrik. This made it seem like 2024 could be a good year for IPOs. However, secondary investors and IPO lawyers recently told TechCrunch that despite these successes, the IPO market won’t fully recover until 2025. This is due to factors like the upcoming presidential election and high interest rates.

This year is still expected to be better than 2023, and we may see a few more public filings. Companies like Klarna and Shein have talked with bankers and seem close to going public, but their exact IPO timelines are still unclear.

It might be easier to figure out which companies are not going public this year rather than which ones are. Some CEOs of late-stage startups have directly said they won’t IPO in 2024, while others have made financial moves that suggest a public listing isn’t happening soon. Here are some venture-backed tech companies that likely won’t go public this year:

  1. Plaid: CEO Zach Perret said in March that the B2B fintech company had no plans to IPO in 2024. This matches what TechCrunch’s Mary Ann Azevedo reported last October after Plaid hired a new CFO. Plaid’s most recent valuation was $13.4 billion in 2021.
  2. Figma: While the design unicorn hasn’t directly said it won’t IPO this year, its actions suggest so. In May, Figma held a tender offer, allowing existing investors and employees to sell their shares on the secondary market. This type of liquidity event usually doesn’t happen right before an IPO. The tender offer valued Figma at $12.5 billion, which is lower than the $20 billion Adobe was willing to pay, but higher than its last primary round valuation of $10 billion.
  3. Stripe: The fintech unicorn also held a tender offer for current and former employees earlier this year. In February, Stripe announced a secondary sale that valued the company at $65 billion, lower than its 2021 valuation of $95 billion. This suggests that Stripe will likely try to increase its valuation more before going public.
  4. Databricks: The AI cloud platform is unlikely to go public in 2024, despite some VC investors predicting it would be the first to do so. The company raised $500 million in a Series I round last fall, valuing it at $43 billion. While companies don’t usually raise funding right before an IPO, Databricks raised from crossover investors like T.Rowe Price. These investors are well-positioned for an IPO when market conditions improve, so Databricks could be one of the first listings in 2025 if they choose.
  5. Canva: The design startup likely won’t go public until at least next year, and possibly even 2026. Co-founder Cliff Obrecht, husband of Canva CEO Melanie Perkins, told Startup Daily in March that an IPO would be at least 12 months away, if not sometime in 2026. Obrecht also confirmed that when Canva does go public, it will do so in the U.S.