The U.S. tech IPO scene hasn’t exactly been busy this year. But for those who have made their debuts, the market reception has been exceptionally positive overall.
That could be a helpful tailwind for Figma, which priced its IPO late Wednesday at $33 per share, slightly above the projected range. Shares of the design software provider will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FIG.
If Figma follows in the footsteps of other big IPOs this year, we can expect shares to go up from there. That, at least, was the pattern we found in a Crunchbase review of venture-backed companies that went public on U.S. exchanges this year. Among the nine largest offerings, all were up from where they priced their IPOs.
Circle leads
Circle Internet Group is the top performer by a long shot. The New York-based stablecoin provider, currently valued above $40 billion, has seen the value of its shares rise more than 5x following its early June IPO.
The stupendous performance has helped spur a raft of other newcomers looking to test their luck on public markets. In the past few weeks, BitGo, a provider of secure wallets for digital assets, and Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, both submitted confidential draft registrations to go public. Also this month, digital asset platform Bullish filed publicly for its IPO.
It also likely helped that Circle’s debut coincided with a sharp rise in crypto values, with Bitcoin recently near its all-time high at more than $118,000.
CoreWeave, Chime and others still up
While Circle is the biggest gainer, AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave is still the most valuable venture-backed company to go public this year, with a recent market cap around $52 billion. Shares of the New Jersey company have also more than doubled since its April IPO.
Digital banking provider Chime, the next-largest offering, is also up a bit, albeit not so dramatically. And while a market cap over $12 billion certainly sounds like a lot, it’s still far below the $25 billion peak valuation Chime garnered several years ago.
Several mid-sized IPOs have also posted big gains. Metsera, a developer of therapies for obesity and metabolic diseases, is trading at roughly double the level it priced shares for its January IPO. And shares of MNTN, a targeted TV advertising platform, are also up sharply from the initial offering price in May.
Up next: More huge offerings
Even with some large offerings in the mix, the pace of venture-backed IPOs so far this year has been on the slow side. Granted, it’s a pickup from the latter part of 2024, which was even slower. But to really be able to declare the IPO market is back in a big way, we’ll need to see more large, successful offerings.
Fortunately, those are likely on tap. Most anticipated of all is probably design software developer Figma, which recently boosted the proposed price range for its upcoming IPO, raising its expected initial valuation to up to $18.8 billion.
Another smaller but nonetheless successful debut came to fruition on Wednesday as Ambiq Micro, a maker of low-power chips for AI computing, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares closed up 61% in first-day trading.
Given that preparing for an IPO is a notoriously demanding process, it remains to be seen how many of today’s eligible unicorns will add themselves to the public offering pipeline. If things continue in the current fashion, though, many of those who opted to stay private may be regretting their decision.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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