Despite Flurry of Activity, Software IPOs to Fall Short of 2019 Numbers

The last week has seen a flurry of subscription software companies filing to go public in the last few months of the year, hoping to cash in on the booming stock market and rich valuations accorded the software sector. But thanks to the drought in initial public offerings, brought on by the pandemic, this year’s total of software IPOs is likely to fall well short of last year’s. 

As of Aug. 27, 31 software IPOs had raised $11 billion this year, but six more companies have filed to go public in recent days—Snowflake, Sumo Logic, Unity, and JFrog plan an IPO, while Palantir and Asana have filed for direct listings. That suggests the year will end with 37 companies going public, although only 35 will raise money as part of their public debuts. The total amount raised by this year’s IPOs could be $14.2 billion, based on our estimate for the coming IPOs.