This year was the worst for tech IPOs in the US since the GFC, with only 28 companies going public and most forced to downgrade private valuations.
Atlassian’s IPO last week proved to be one of the few bright spots in the public market landscape, netting $605 million and valuing the Australian startup at nearly $8 billion.
But as Tech Crunch reports, the Australian-born startup was one of the very few tech companies to not receive a substantially lower listing valuation than with private investors.
Only 28 tech companies went public in the US, compared to 62 in 2014 and 48 in 2013, with well over 100 unicorns choosing to stay private instead.
Those that did go down the IPO path performed generally poorly, with Etsy’s valuation dropping by 41% and the likes of Box, Square and Match Group also falling.
Global payments company First Data enjoyed the largest IPO of the year, raising $2.8 billion, while the listings in total raised $9.4 billion for the year.
A reason for the poor showing for tech companies could be a general shift away from revenue growth forecasts towards bottom-line profits, Nasdaq Global Listing Services EVP Nelson Griggs told Tech Crunch.
This shift worked in the favour of Atlassian, which has been profitable for the last decade and has enjoyed steady growth.
Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
Denham Sadler is a former editor of StartupSmart. He was previously a journalist at the publication and has worked as a freelancer for the Guardian, the Saturday Paper and the ABC. In his spare time he likes puns and jaffles.
Comments