Dealogic: US-listed IPOs have raised $18B+ in 2017 and new listing volume highest since 2014, but high-profile private companies like Uber and Airbnb hold back
The market for IPOs is rebounding, but high-profile startups like Uber and Airbnb are shying away amid concerns their companies …
Context & Ripple Effects
This May 2017 report marks the reopening of the US IPO window after a multi-year drought: Dealogic counts $18B+ raised and new-listing volume at its highest since 2014. The wrinkle is who is absent — the wave of $1B+ tech companies that finally listed in 2018 had not yet committed, with Uber and Airbnb among the marquee names holding back.
The holdout pattern matters because it previews how the rest of the decade unfolded: even once the giants did go public, they sold thin slices of themselves — tech startups averaged just 17% floats in 2018 — and by 2019 founders were experimenting with direct listings over bank-led IPOs, keeping more of the company out of public hands for longer.
First-order effects
- Underwriters and exchanges get a fee and volume recovery as new listings hit their highest level since 2014, but the pipeline lacks its biggest potential prizes while Uber and Airbnb stay private.
Second-order effects
- Investors chasing growth exposure crowd into the smaller deals that are available, and the deferred mega-IPOs become a standing overhang that later cycles must absorb — which is what happened when 38 unicorns listed in 2018.
Third-order effects
- If marquee companies keep delaying and then listing minimal stakes, public markets systematically capture less of each company's growth curve, sustaining a private valuation–liquidity gap that persists through boom years like 2021 and troughs like 2022 alike.
The trend: IPO markets cycle open and shut, but the deeper drift is that the largest startups list later and smaller, leaving public investors a shrinking share of late-stage value.