Tech IPOs 2025: The Changing Face of Public Offerings

From IPO Plans to M&A Exits: The Seismic 2025 Shift

Last year, we explored major case studies of the trend in IPO delays: tech companies Stripe, Databricks, and Figma. This year, delayed ipo announcements are becoming a mainstay, with startups opting for longer runways in the form of late-stage fundraising to generate investment liquidity while averting the IPO route.

For instance, Carta reported a Series C increase of nearly 42% and a Series D spike of 78.8% in 2024 — it was definitely a year for late-stage recovery that gave startups hopes of higher valuation and longer private market stays. Investors have seen an opportunity in this pattern, seeking market dominance by supporting more experienced late-stage tech companies.

The private fund management company also revealed that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are becoming attractive as another way to stay profitable without an exit. Its own portfolio experienced 642 M&A transactions last year, the highest annual activity in six years.

This strong acquisition market is being further confirmed by Crunchbase, which recently published Q1 2025 numbers with encouraging signs: There were 12 announced acquisitions above $1 billion, with AI-related companies partaking in 81 M&A deals (a whopping 33% increase compared to Q1 and Q4 2024).

Needless to say, while tech IPOs aren’t fully off the table, startups have certainly managed to find new ways to survive and even thrive in the private market, and investors have been responsive.

New Public Companies Making Waves in 2025

Last year, we expected high-profile IPO delays from private companies like Stripe to have one foot out the door by this time of year. However, the reality is that only Figma was able to follow through — with quite some stealth.

As a refresher, the startup had originally planned to be acquired by Adobe for $20 billion, but the deal was blocked by antitrust regulators in 2023. Now, after delaying its long-awaited exit, Figma finally filed its IPO in the US market, but its confidential status has kept vital information under wraps.

On the other hand, companies like Stripe and Databricks have steered clear of going public soon. In fact, they’ve shown little interest as of late. John Collison, co-founder and President of Stripe, spoke to CNBC and said, “We are not dogmatic on the public vs. private question and have no near-term IPO plans.”

Databricks CEO, Ali Ghodsi, was more blunt about it: “It’s dumb to IPO this year, so we’re definitely going to wait.” He cited interest rates, inflation, and 2024 being an election year as factors in the company’s decision.

With the slow tech IPO market so far, there was only hope for startups with high valuations like Chime, Klarna, and GrubMarket to reignite the fire. But, with the sudden US tariff announcement, the former two decided to further delay their exit from public stocks, and the latter recently raised an oversubscribed Series G round with no announcements for future steps.

Case Studies: The Top Tech Sub-Sectors

As expected since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022, AI has dominated the venture capital (VC) market in recent years. But it doesn’t keep it all to itself — according to PitchBook, AI helped boost SaaS deal value in 2024.

It’s also no doubt that SaaS continues to soar as companies opt for monthly subscriptions with managed tech services. The enterprise software category (excluding AI, but many AI-related or enabled) was the clear fundraising leader by the end of last year, with $92.7 billion raised. Fintech came third with $35 billion, blocked by the healthtech industry’s impressive $67.3 billion raised.

What are companies in these tech sectors doing right? Let’s unpack how some of the biggest startups rose to success.

Anthropic

AI model developer Anthropic has managed to rival giant OpenAI by adding its own twist to what the world came to expect from AI chatbots and how the company operates.

Right off the bat, the startup has been committed to delivering variety. Its available Claude models (Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus) offer users a wide range of capabilities through free and paid versions that make the product highly adaptable to personal and business needs. Some are better at handling longer prompts at faster speeds, while others balance both factors with a side of affordability for enterprises.

Additionally, Anthropic is bent on developing a product that thrives on accuracy, safety, and usability, making it an ideal product in fields like programming, law, and customer service. The company prides itself on using constitutional AI and baking safety directly into its models to build an outstanding product.

Its corporate structure differentiates it from other AI companies — it is a public benefit corporation (PBC), which means it is legally required to balance private and societal interests by operating responsibly and sustainably. While going this route isn’t for everyone (as it leads to focusing on even more goals), becoming a PBC reflects that a company is more than just interested in generating revenue, driving positive outcomes in society as well.

So, it’s no wonder Anthropic recently closed a $3.5 billion Series E round with a post-money valuation of $61.5 billion from investors like Cisco, Menlo, and Salesforce.

Wiz

Wiz is a cloud security SaaS founded in 2020. Although only five years old, the company is already a leader in its industry, arguably thanks to its prolific founding team — ex-Microsoft veterans with previous startup experience. Today, the company offers comprehensive visibility and risk management across major cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

By 2024, Wiz had achieved an impressive $500 million in annual recurring revenue, and, according to the startup, these impressive numbers have attracted over 40% of Fortune 100 companies as clients, including notable names such as Salesforce, Slack, and BMW.

Building a team with previous venture experience and many cybersecurity tools in their shed meant the startup knew how to start on the right foot. For example, its team knew how to build a winning company culture that prioritizes agility without disrupting workplace quality, and made timely leadership changes by appointing Dali Rajic, former COO and President of Zscaler, to scale operations ahead of a funding round.

In May 2024, its success solidified when it announced a $1 billion funding round led by high-profile investors like Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its valuation to $12 billion; an accomplishment not all four-year-old companies can say they achieved.

Very recently, Alphabet announced it’s acquiring Wiz for $32 billion to improve Google’s cloud security, increasing the company’s original $23 billion bid, which Wiz rejected in 2024.

Monzo

Monzo is a British neo-bank founded in 2015 and gaining massive interest as of late. The startup offers various app-based banking services that include current accounts, savings, lending, and business banking — not necessarily anything new in the fintech industry with players like Revolut, but it’s all about the approach.

The startup provides popular products for both individuals and businesses, like budgeting tools and instant money transfers (which quickly allowed it to rival other market leaders), while infusing a user-friendly, customer-centric approach. This helped Monzo quickly amass a client base of nine million personal customers, 400,000 business customers, and record its first year of profitability in 2024.

A definitive factor behind the startup’s sustained momentum is its deliberate and inclusive company culture. While many other founders wouldn’t prioritize the human element, Monzo’s co-founders have expressed they’re passionate about creating a supportive, forward-thinking culture inside the company, which has been reflected in the quality of its end product.

Plus, its latest funding round has done all the talking. Monzo secured significant fundraising — £500 million or over $650 million — in two consecutive rounds, reached a valuation of over $5 billion, and hinted at a US expansion. These achievements point to investor confidence and long-term prospects, which are much needed at a time when fintech funding across Europe has generally declined.

The startup’s strong cultural foundation, combined with a relentless focus on customer needs and sustainable scalability, has positioned it as a blueprint for other European fintechs aspiring to achieve profitability, investor interest, and lasting impact in the sector.

IPOs on Deck for 2025: What to Expect

Despite some companies backtracking after being seemingly ready to exit, it’s not all over for IPOs this year. Many are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel by announcing an initial public offering or hinting at it.

Cerebras

The latest potential IPO valuation for this AI chip startup is $4.3 billion. While it had all the intentions to go public back in October 2024, the company reportedly faced paperwork issues that delayed its exit. Its efforts are reaping benefits after it recently received clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a key step to going public in the country.

Although the company hasn’t yet announced an IPO date, it’s still eager to follow through with its promise to compete against direct rival Nvidia in the stock market.

Revolut

This British digital bank has been hitting every milestone lately — and perhaps eyeing an IPO this year. The company just announced it made $1 billion in revenue in 2024, a 149% jump year-over-year, ahead of launching its UK bank.

Francesca Carlesi, CEO of Revolut in the UK, says she sees this launch as a crucial step towards further global expansion and an IPO. While it’s still uncertain if the company will make a public offering in the near future, it’s clearly on the right track to make it a reality.

Tech IPOs 2025: What the Future Holds

The current tech IPO caution from most startups might partly stem from the market conditions and the US’ recent policy changes, triggering hesitation across consumer confidence and business uncertainty. Whether these economic shifts will last or be temporary is still unclear, but other factors can help paint the picture for future IPO activity.

For instance, although the tech sector has held its ground, healthtech is far exceeding expectations this year in terms of fundraising and IPOs (Kestra and Heartflow are some of the possible medical device companies going public).

Deloitte also confirms this trend for the Life Sciences sector, especially after last year’s lull. The firm expects 2025 IPO market action to increase slightly above average, with capital raised in the $45 billion to $50 billion range — provided companies have a clear path to profitability in the next 12 to 18 months.

And as per our very own Carl Niedbala for Crunchbase, cyber security will play an even bigger role in raising rounds and going public, especially as management liability progressively relates to it. Consequently, protecting assets, executives, and employees with suitable coverage policies and other risk management strategies will play an even bigger role in becoming a good fit for investors.

What’s certain is that late-stage startups will continue to look for different profitability avenues beyond going public. Besides the prospect of preparing to raise capital, M&As have been taking a piece of the pie that once belonged to the IPO market, giving companies some peace of mind amid the volatile economic outlook and challenging market conditions.