After investors spent a decade pouring money into Silicon Valley start-ups so they could keep growing while staying private, the pendulum has completely swung around, and tech IPOs are bigger than ever. Three of the 10 biggest tech IPOs for U.S. companies, in terms of capital raised, have taken place this year. Two happened on consecutive days in the last week, when DoorDash and Airbnb started trading on Dec. 9 and 10. The other was software vendor Snowflake, which had its New York Stock Exchange debut in September.
They each raised over $3 billion and have market caps between $55 billion and $100 billion, putting them among the 30 most valuable U.S. tech companies. Before going public they commanded valuations in the double-digit billions, attracting large checks along the way from private equity firms, fund managers, strategic investors and sovereign wealth funds.
he high-valued tech companies are taking advantage of a bull market that’s continued despite nine months of the coronavirus pandemic and a disastrous year for the broader economy. A healthy roster of emerging software companies, including cloud software names like UiPath and Databricks, could still fill up the pipeline in 2021.
