Billion-dollar exits are on the rise.
So far this year, 11 U.S. venture-backed private companies have gone public or agreed to be acquired at valuations of $1 billion or more, per Crunchbase data. That’s more than double the number from the same period last year.
What’s more, this year’s lineup of big exits includes a record-breaking one: Google’s planned $32 billion purchase of cybersecurity unicorn Wiz, announced last week. If consummated, the deal would be the largest acquisition of a venture-backed, private startup ever.
For a sense of how exits are trending, we used Crunchbase’s Billion-Dollar Exits Board to dig up some of the standout stats. Here are some of our findings:
Exits spring to life in March: This month is shaping up as one of the busiest in a while for U.S. venture-backed exits. Besides Wiz, we saw another huge tech acquisition last week: SoftBank’s $6.2 billion purchase of Silicon Valley AI chip design startup Ampere Computing. Overall, there have been eight billion-dollar exits so far this month, with a total value of more than $60 billion.
37 billion-dollar exits in past four quarters: Over the past four quarters, 1 37 U.S. startups have either agreed to be acquired or carried out public offerings at valuations of $1 billion or more, per Crunchase data. That’s almost double the number from the prior 12-month period.
More M&A deals than IPOs: All but one of this year’s billion-dollar exits have been acquisitions. The only IPO was January’s market debut by Metsera, a startup developing hormone therapies for obesity and related diseases that is currently valued around $3 billion.
Some purchases are at discounts from prior valuations: Several companies that got acquired did so at valuations lower than their prior peaks. This includes our most recent deal, Munich Re’s $2.6 billion purchase of small business insurance policy provider Next Insurance, which had been valued at $4 billion in 2021.
Another example was Niantic, which sold its core gaming assets to Scopely this month for $3.5 billion. In 2021, Niantic raised funding at a $9 billion valuation. Additionally, rent-to-own platform Divvy Homes sold to Brookfield Properties for $1 billion, after landing a peak valuation of $2.3 billion nearly four years ago.
And IPOs are coming too …
Even if M&A momentum slows, we can expect to see more billion-dollar exits in coming weeks as companies in the IPO pipeline prepare to hit the market.
The largest debut is expected to be CoreWeave, provider of a fast-growing cloud platform for managing AI infrastructure that filed for its long-awaited Nasdaq IPO earlier this month. It’s reportedly now targeting a $32 billion valuation.
Also this month, Hinge Health, provider of an online platform offering therapy for joint and muscle health, filed another big offering. The San Francisco-based company, which did not disclose a target IPO valuation, was valued at $6.2 billion in late 2021.
Not boring
While we don’t know how long it will last, at least one can say that for the time being, the big-ticket startup exit environment is no longer slow and boring. In fact, it’s pretty happening.
We’ll see in coming quarters if it stays that way.
Related reading:
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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