Venture funding this year has reached levels not seen since the dot-com bubble and private valuations have exploded, however public markets are still awaiting their turn in the limelight.
With just 4 months left of the year, attention now begins to turn to who will IPO in 2016.
That question becomes even more valid when you consider that private companies are staying private at the same time as certain IPO valuations are breaking records.
The question of when to go public is becoming even harder.
However tech can’t live without IPOs: it’s a rite of passage, allowing firms to collect a significant amount of money whilst raising their profiles and valuations.
There are also tell-take signs of when a company is readying itself for the public market and here are 10 predictions for who will IPO in 2016.
Houzz
Palo Alto-based unicorn Houzz offers an online home decoration service, and exists as a portal for everything related to home remodelling with more than 35 million unique monthly users.
It monetizes the services that the platform showcases and charges fees for every transaction, as well as generating additional revenue streams from ads.
Its valuation growth is expected to drive the company in taking another step towards an IPO soon, thanks to institutional investor pressures, and a pre-IPO funding round before a public announcement next year is a strong prediction.
UK founded, but now US headquartered, Huddle has to be considered as part of any debate around who will IPO in 2016.
The company, which specializes in team collaboration software, has recently appointed a new CEO, as founder Alastair Mitchell transitions into the CMO role.
It also raised a further round of £35 million in June of this year, and may look to follow in the footsteps of its enterprise cloud services peer, Box.
Veracode
Veracode is a cloud-based company specialising in application security, based in Burlington, Massachusetts.
The company is now 9 years old; another example of private companies waiting longer for the right time to go public.
Veracode was reported to be filing for an IPO with the US securities authority – having gone as far as to have picked out underwriters apparently.
The magazine, Fortune, believes that the move could double Veracode’s value to $900m (£580m).
Eventbrite
Hot Topics interviewed Renaud Visage, co-founder and CTO of Eventbrite back in February of this year. One topic was a potential IPO. He mentioned that there was no pressure to IPO but did say that as the company grows older, the chances of an IPO gets higher.
Watch the video below for Visage’s full answer to the question and it may shape your understanding of who will IPO in 2016.
Cloudera
Cloudera is an American-based software company that provides Apache Hadoop-based software, support and services, and training to business customers.
It has experienced a very quick rise – revenues peaked at $100m for 2014 – and has led many to speculate and hope for a move onto public markets, rumours being stoked up in February following reports from VentureBeat.
Despite the impressive revenues, and a valuation of around $4.5 billion, it’s still unclear as to the Cloudera’s next move.
Hadoop technology companies haven’t had great IPO experiences but if you’re asking who will IPO in 2016, Cloudera has to be considered..
Uber
It has been a tough few months for the taxi-hailing app creator Uber, with the company facing regulatory pushback from a number of countries around the world.
Even so, the business continues to grow like wildfire and any potential discussion around who will IPO in 2016 must include Uber.
A publicly leaked email from chief executive Travis Kalanick revealed the firm is planning on spending more than $1bn in the country alone.
Such spending will have to be backed up by something, and the attention Uber has attracted from the media for its pioneering of the “sharing economy” has raised interest in a potential IPO that is unlikely to subside.
Airbnb
Another company with staggering growth and a strong profile in the sharing economy, Airbnb allows property owners to become part-time landlords by renting out their homes to strangers while they are away.
At the end of last month the firm was reportedly valued around $25 billion following a $1.5 billion funding round, according to CNN, the service having rolled out to almost every country in the world and more than 34,000 cities.
Sustaining these figures will be an entirely different task but an IPO may be the most likely next step in 2016.
Snapchat
There have been some question marks around Snapchat’s revenue model in recent weeks, after a senior executive leaked financials to show significant losses.
It has led some media to suggest that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook dodged a bullet by failing to acquire the company.
Whether those claims have grounds is up for debate, but it may be that the firm turns to the public markers for its next injection of capital.
The comments in May of Evan Spiegel, chief executive of company, add fuel to that argument.
“We need to IPO; we have a plan to do that,” he said at the end of that month at a tech conference in southern California, “An IPO is really important.”
As such do not be surprised when the Snapchat ticker appears on the stock exchange.
Space X
Aerospace service provider SpaceX is leading the efforts to enable low-cost commercial aerospace services, and has contracts with NASA to transport cargo to the ISS in the short run and US astronauts in the long run.
This is Elon Musk’s most exciting initiative and is included within the conversation of who will IPO in 2016 after its valuation of $12 billion and a 10-17 P/S ratio provides a base for investment purposes whereas its exhaustive use of public market funding channels may mean that going public is it’s last route.
AppNexus
AppNexus, an adtech market leader, raised almost $290 million and was valued at $1.5 billion on its recent series F funding round.
After a recent interview with CEO Brian O’Kelley though, the advertising marketplace is now a serious IPO candidate for 2016, and with a valuation of around $1.7 billion – controlling around 30% of the adtech industry – this could be one of the more exciting ventures in terms of who will IPO in 2016.
