After a couple of unpredictable years for initial public offerings (IPOs), investors are unsure what to expect for 2022. Last year’s successful IPOs included popular dating app Bumble, the Roblox gaming platform, and Duolingo’s language learning app. However, in the wake of inflation and effects from the Omicron COVID variant towards the end of last year, many companies are delaying. Nevertheless, here are a few of the top IPOs investors are looking out for this year.
Instacart
While founder Apoorva Mehta struggled to build a successful business after leaving his job with Amazon, his current venture Instacart rose in popularity thanks to the pandemic. As people avoided going into public spaces, being able to use the app to pay someone else to buy and deliver their groceries was an incredible service. Instacart has been busy raising funds over the past months and is expected to be one of the largest IPOs sometime this year.
This insanely popular message board platform has over 50 million active users daily, and its value has been rising at rapid rates over the past year. Considering they have already filed to go public, investors expect Reddit to go public with a high valuation in the near future.
Discord
Discord is a messaging platform often compared to Slack, although it is more often used for personal or consumer communication rather than B2B communication. It is especially popular in the gaming community. Discord has seen consistent growth over the past two year, growing from 56 million monthly users in 2019 to over 150 million monthly users by the end of 2021. If their growth stays at this rate, this IPO has potential.
Databricks
Databricks offers software for enterprises to help manage big data. They have grown a pretty impressive customer base, including big-name brands like CVS Health and Comcast. They haven’t officially filed documents yet, but they seem to be setting themselves up for an IPO later this year.
The Fresh Market
This gourmet grocery chain has had a bit of a rocky past, struggling to compete with bigger companies like Amazon and Whole Foods. They were bought out by Apollo Global in 2016 and have since been working on restructuring operations. Under a new CEO, the company has filed for an IPO that will likely happen this year.
Stripe
Stripe was the most highly valued venture-backed private company in early 2021. With a booming business in processing online payments for businesses, Stripe will easily be the biggest IPO if and when it happens.