So one question many are wondering about: just how many scale-ups are really getting ready to IPO?
Pitchbook has a new analysis. They count 600+ start-ups with metrics far enough along to IPO:
And they count 294 SaaS start-ups ready to IPO at the end of 2024, so let’s call it 300+ today:
Now personally I think they may be a bit optimistic. The bar to IPO at the moment does look pretty high. I’m not sure a SaaS company at $200m ARR growing 20% can really IPO today, for example. And there are quite a few like this.
But it does show the IPO backlog ready to go. If even 40% of these 300 SaaS leaders IPO, that would be over 100 SaaS IPOs in the coming years. And almost 100 in AL & ML.
Whatever the exact number is — a lot are waiting in the wings.
