The year 2015 has been a slow one for initial public offerings in the tech industry, with the number of new public companies slashed to half compared to last year. However, there is much to expect once 2016 rolls around.
Top Tech IPOs For 2015
Atlassian: $462 Million
Atlassian, which launched its IPO just this month, was able to raise $462 million with a share price of $21. The developer of project management and collaboration software had initially expected to price each share within the range of $16.50 to $18.50, but the high demand from investors propelled the company's flotation to great heights.
GoDaddy: $460 Million
Website hosting company GoDaddy was able to raise $460 million from its IPO in April, pricing its shares at $20 each, above the expected range of $17 to $19. Since then, the stock price of the company has grown by almost 25 percent, which is not bad for a service that is popular for controversial advertisements.
Pure Storage: $425 Million
Flash storage company Pure Storage priced its IPO at $17 per share, raising $425 million. However, it mostly struggled afterwards to maintain that share price, before recovering earlier in December after the company posted earnings and revenue for the third quarter that is higher than expected.
Match Group: $400 Million
The Match Group, which owns popular dating services Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder, launched its IPO in November at $12 per share, which was at the lower end of the expected $12 to $14 range. The company raised $400 million, with the price of its shares now up to about $14.
Etsy: $267 Million
Etsy, an online marketplace for arts and crafts, raised $267 million in its IPO in April, pricing its shares at $16, which was at the top end of the expected range of $14 to $16. The price of the stock soared to $30 on the first day, but it has since declined because of poor earnings and the announcement of Amazon that it will be launching a rival service named Amazon Handmade.
Tech IPOs To Expect In 2016
While the companies listed below have not expressed any confirmation that they will be going public next year, they are among the most interesting ones that will do so if they indeed file for an IPO.
Xiaomi
China-based Xiaomi saw massive growth in the cutthroat mobile phone market over the past few years. With its valuation of about $45 billion, an IPO filing for the company would be huge.
It would not be a surprise for investors to want to get into Xiaomi's shares, given the company's strong performance. Xiaomi released its first smartphone back in 2011, but by the third quarter of last year, the company had already captured 16 percent of the market share in the mobile phone industry, good for third, right behind giants Samsung and Apple.
Airbnb
Airbnb, the lodging app and service that was founded in 2007, connects willing hosts with renters who are looking for a place to stay. The company, which has listings numbering more than 1.5 million across 34,000 cities in more than 190 countries, is said to be worth $25.5 billion, a figure that is more than the value of hotel chains such as Hyatt, Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels and Wyndham.
While Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky previously said that the company would not be seeking an IPO yet, 2016 could be the year that Airbnb finally goes public, and investors will surely be falling in line to snap up some shares if that would be the case.
Snapchat
Ephemeral messaging service Snapchat, which started out as a class project, allows users to send messages, pictures and videos that are automatically deleted after several seconds. Launched in 2012 and available for iOS and Android, the company behind the app has since been able to raise $1.2 billion, with the last funding round pegging the startup's value at $16 billion. A new funding round announced earlier in the year could take the company's value up to $19 billion.
An IPO for Snapchat would send up the company's value even higher, with the messaging service's positioning in the digital age mostly solidified. However, Snapchat might have to address a variety of issues, such as a recent hacking scandal and the service's association to sexting.
