Dealogic data: 38 tech and internet companies valued at $1B+ had an IPO in 2018, the most since 2000
Corrie Driebusch / Wall Street Journal : Tweets: @jessefelder and @skupor Tweets: Jesse Felder / @jessefelder : In 2018, to little fanfare, 38 tech and internet companies valued at $1 billion or more at the time of their IPO listed shares in the U.S., the most to do so since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000. https://www.wsj.com/... pic.twitter.com/G3hQafqwgj Scott Kupor / @skupor : 2018 $1b+ tech IPOs beat market by 13% https://www.wsj.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2017 setup was a market waiting on the sidelines: listing volume was the highest since 2014, but marquee privates like Uber and Airbnb were deliberately holding back. The first half of 2018 then delivered ~$12.2B across 28 US tech IPOs — nearly double the prior-year pace — and this full-year tally confirms it wasn't a half-year blip.
The 38 companies valued at $1B+ mark the deepest unicorn-exit window since 2000, and they exited differently than their dot-com predecessors: as of November, these issuers were selling just 17% of themselves on average, with roughly 44% tapping secondary offerings within 180 days of listing.
First-order effects
- The 2018 class listed into a softening late-year tape yet outperformed the broader market by 13% per Scott Kupor's read of the WSJ data — a result that directly shapes how underwriters pitch the next cohort of $1B+ privates still sitting out, Uber and Airbnb chief among them.
Second-order effects
- Small floats plus rapid follow-on supply change the aftermarket math: with ~44% of 2018 issuers raising secondaries within 180 days, banks and institutional buyers reprice IPO allocations as the first tranche of a multi-stage raise rather than a one-time exit.
Third-order effects
- Record classes cluster at cycle peaks — the same pattern that produced 15 $1B+ tech IPOs in 2021 preceded a 94% collapse in deal proceeds to $8.6B in 2022 (Ernst & Young's tally), suggesting 2018's vintage should be read as a window, not a new baseline.
The trend: US tech IPO activity runs in sharp feast-or-famine cycles keyed to public-market appetite, with record $1B+ cohorts printing at peaks (2000, 2018, 2021) and near-shutdowns following within a few years.