Last year proved to be one of the best years for initial public offerings (IPOs) since 2014. In 2025, there were 353 IPOs in the US, including 210 operating company IPOs, and $70 billion of capital was raised.
Importantly, the 2025 IPO also saw the second-best cap-weighted day-one return of 33% since 2014, indicating a return in investor appetite for IPOs.
Chart 1: At +33%, 2025’s average day-one performance was the second best since 2014
IPOs of fewer and older companies in this century
Still, it wasn’t enough to move the needle on a problem in the IPO market – companies waiting too long to go public. From the chart below, you can see that this is part of a trend that started this century.
Last year, the average age of a company going public was 12 years. This is only a slight improvement from 14 years in 2024 and equal to the second highest average age since 2009.
The ’80s and ’90s were completely different:
- Companies go public early in their life (height of the bar). The average age at IPO was only 8 years – compared to 11 years after 2000. In fact, in the ’80s and ’90s, there was Never A year where the average age was more than 10 years. But, over the past 25 years, the average age has increased by more than 10 years two third Of time!
- Many more IPOs came (bar width), averaging more than 300 per year – compared to about 110 per year since 2000.
Chart 2: Companies wait longer and are less likely to IPO
Some of the major reasons for this trend are:
- growth of private capital Making it easier for companies to stay private longer, global private capital assets under management are expected to grow from $1 trillion in 2000 to $16 trillion in 2024.
- The regulatory burden of going public has increased This century, research has shown that the average length of a 10-K annual report has more than doubled from 23,000 words in 1996 to 49,000 in 2013, “virtually all” due to new regulatory requirements.
Data shows IPOs benefit investors, companies and the economy
crisis The longer wait time for companies to IPO means that it deprives the economy of all the benefits of public companies:
- household financial security: Research shows US equities have created nearly $80 trillion in wealth from 1926 to 2024. Because of companies waiting a long time to go public, retail investors miss the opportunity to invest in these companies as they go public. This makes it harder for American investors to secure their retirement, increasing reliance on Social Security.
- Employment Growth:Research shows that companies that hold an IPO see an average annual employment growth of 23% in their first three years after the IPO, compared to a 7% annual gain for companies that withdraw IPO filings.
- innovation: Funds raised from IPOs support innovation through increased research and development (R&D) spending, with research showing that public companies invest approximately 50% more in R&D than comparable private companies.
- economic development: Other research shows that growing public markets also promote economic growth.
And from a company perspective, a recent US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) report shows that companies that have an IPO see a 25% reduction in credit spreads, lower borrowing costs and a larger pool of lenders.
Reforms are coming to help make IPOs great again
Fortunately, there are ways to solve this problem.
Nasdaq has several proposals to make going public less expensive, including increasing disclosure requirements according to company size and simplifying quarterly reporting – or even offering semiannual reporting. Some of these suggestions align with the Trump administration’s “Make IPOs Great Again” plan.
These changes will make it easier for more companies to launch IPOs more quickly. This, in turn, will help the US maintain its position as the world’s most dynamic economy with the most dynamic equity (and IPO) markets in the world.
IPO pulses indicate continued increase in IPO activity in mid-year
Yet, by any other measure, 2025 turns out to be a great year for IPOs – in the US and in Stockholm.
And this is in line with our expectation in early 2025, when we called for an “IPO revival” based on our Nasdaq IPO pulses.
Interestingly, the outlook for 2026 is the same.
Nasdaq US IPO Pulse
Following the Liberation Day tariffs, Nasdaq IPO pulse fell, hitting a one-and-a-half-year low as the market sold off in early 2025. Since then, there has been a fresh surge, rising in December to almost the same one-year high as in October.
In line with the IPO pulse, IPO activity declined in the second quarter, before a bounce in the third quarter.
Although Q4 looks weak, that’s mostly due to the government shutdown, which continued for almost half Of the quarter. The shutdown reduced IPO activity because the SEC is required to review and approve IPO filings. While the SEC created a path for companies to go public during the shutdown, it still slowed the process, while the shutdown increased economic uncertainty, which may have caused some companies to delay going public.
So, with the Nasdaq IPO pulse close to October’s one-year high, US IPO activity is likely to remain bullish through mid-year (at least), given that the average forecast window for the IPO pulse is about five months. This means this could be an opportune time for some big names to have IPOs!
Chart 3: Nasdaq IPO pulse near one-year high, indicating continued growth in IPO activity
Nasdaq Stockholm IPO Pulse
The situation is similar in Stockholm also. In 2025, it raised the most capital of any location in Europe ($7.2 billion) across 20 new listings.
Like the US, the trade war triggered a selloff in Europe in early 2025, sending the Nasdaq Stockholm IPO pulse down. But it has since bounced back and reached a 10-month high in December.
In line with this surge in the Stockholm IPO pulse, there has been an increase in IPO activity over the past two quarters, including Europe’s largest IPO in three years in Q4 – VeriSure (VSURE), a global security services company (which trades in euros!).
So, with the Stockholm IPO pulse at a 10-month high, it is likely that IPO activity will remain in its own uptrend into (at least) the second quarter of 2026.
Chart 4: Stockholm IPO activity improves in line with uptick in Stockholm IPO pulse
IPO pulses are supportive for the beginning of 2026, big name IPOs can be seen in a year
With both our US and Stockholm IPO pulse picking up, it is likely that we see an uptick in IPO activity as well. If we see a change in policy to remove the burden of going public in the US, it will likely support more IPOs – and hopefully get companies going public sooner.
This is in line with expectations of a strong IPO pipeline. Bloomberg suggests companies with a combined value $3 trillion IPOs could come this year Counting only “centicorns” – companies valued at $100 billion or more – the list of IPO prospects includes SpaceX, OpenAI, ByteDance, Anthropic AI, Databricks and Stripe. So, 2026 could be a historic year for IPOs!
We will continue to monitor the cyclical drivers of IPOs and provide updates with quarterly updates on our IPO pulses.
