2021 was a banner year for the stock, with all three indexes registering numerous closing highs. The S&P 500 alone closed high 70 times last year. 

Despite a banner year for existing publicly-traded companies, new arrivals to the public market did not fare so well.

According to Barrons, 1,006 companies went public and raised about  $315.6 billion in 2021. However,  a whopping 64% of this year’s new listings are trading below their offer price. 

2022 IPO DRAFT CLASS: Ranking the Top 10 Prospects

Last year was Financialmiddleclass.com’s inaugural IPO Draft Class.  6 out of our ten companies went public last year. 

Moreover, we are glad to report that one of our companies,  Rivian Automotive, was the biggest IPO for the U.S. company since Facebook or Meta.   You can read how the six new listings fare here. 

10 Most Anticipated IPOs for 2022

What we learned from our 2021 List are the companies that went public either via-SPAC mergers or direct listings were the ones that were getting pressured by their private stakeholders who wanted to cash in or exit.

Cheap money makes private investors more, extending the time startups exit. However, stakeholders are going to wait forever:

Reddit, Inc

Last month, the social media filed a confidential S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcing its plan to go public.  

Reddit was founded in 2005 and had its seed round that same year. The company’s latest funding round was on August 12, 2012, raising $700 at $10 billion valuations.

According to Crunchbase, it has raised a total of $1.3B in funding over eight rounds. The social media platform that has been the birthplace of “meme” stocks has been rumored to be considering an IPO for some time; 2022 might be the year it finally goes public.

Key Operational Metrics  

1. Founded in 2005
2. Has 52 million daily users as of last funding round
3. 100,00 active sub-reddits
4. ~700 employees as of February 2021
5. $170 million revenue in 2020
6. Twitter Inc & Facebook are amongst its major competitors

Stripe

The payments processor was on our 2021 List. the company co-founder, John Collinson, told CNBC back in November that “they are very happy staying private.”  

The online payments behemoth is 13-years old, raised $2.2 billion at a mega-unicorn valuation of $95 billion. Its “staying private” days are numbered.

After the series H funding round that valued Stripe as  the most highly valued venture-backed private company in the U.S., its last funding round was in the secondary market

Key Operational Metrics  

1. Founded in 2009
2. Processes billions of dollars in transactions
3. Charges 2.9% of total transaction value
4. ~4k employees
5. 14 global offices
6. $7.4 Billion in revenue in 2020
7. PayPal & Square are amongst its major competitors

Instacart

The grocery delivery company was on our 2021 List. According to a report published by The Information, the company decided to push off its IPO to grow.

The company’s latest round of funding was on November 1, 2021. It is not clear whether it was private equity or debt financing, but  It raised $232 million. The funding type was unknown.   

In March 2021, it raised $265 million at more than $39 billion valuations. So far, Instacart has raised a total of $2.9 billion in funding over 19 rounds.   

Key Operational Metrics 

1. Founded in 2012
2. 600+ retail partners in North America
3. Provides delivery and pickup services from 45,000+ stores
4. 5,500+ cities in U.S. & Canada
5. $1.65 billion in revenue in 2020

Chime

The digital bank provides checking accounts with no monthly and overdraft fees to lower and middle-income Americans.  

Last year, the successful IPO of the “ buy now pay later” company Affirm showed that investors see values in companies that cater to that group of clients. 

On August 13, 2021, the financial technology startup raised $750 million in its Series G funding round at $25 billion valuations.

Key Operational Metrics 

1. Founded in 2013
2. Fee-free checking and savings accounts
3. 60,000 ATMs for free
4. 13+ million active customers
5. $600 million in revenue in 2020

Houzz

The home-remodeling platform provides homeowners with a whole host of products and services that alleviate the stress of home remodeling, including designed ideas, vetted contractors, and more.

Pandemic home remodeling is still booming, and Houzz wants to capitalize on it.

Houzz’s last private equity funding was on June 9, 2017. The company raised $400 million at about $4 billion valuations. It raised a total of $613.6 million in funding over eight rounds.

Key Operational Metrics 

1. Founded in 2009
2. ~1,700 employees
3. ~500 million in revenue in 2020

TPG Partners LLC

The private equity firm that mainly manages funds for institutional investors wants to access the secondary market or the world of index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The firm filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC last month. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company could be valued at $10 billion.

Key Operational Metrics 

1. Founded in 1992
2. $109 billion of assets under management (AUM)
3. 912 employees
4. Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, and Apollo Global Management are competitors.
5. $2.11 billion in revenue in 2020
6. $1.44 billion net income in 2020
7. Major deals: $5 billion purchase of luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, $44 billion buyouts of Texas Power/TXU

Impossible Foods, Inc

The meatless-burger company is another company that was on our 2021 List. The appetite for faux meat products is still there, but the Agrifoodtech company had already raised $2 billion in the private equity market.

On November 23, 2021, Impossible Foods raised $500 million at a $7 billion valuations. So far, the company raised a total of $2.1 billion in funding over two rounds. 

Key Operational Metrics 

1. Founded in 2011
2.  Has products in 22,000 grocery stores and 40,000 restaurants
3. Beyond Meat (publicly listed) and MeaTech are amongst its major competitors.
4. ~800 employees

Discord

The chat app company was founded five years ago, but its growth has been skyrocketed. It has about 150 million active monthly users, and it turned down a $10 billion offer from Microsoft last year. 

Jason Citron founded Discord to help remote tech workers remove slacks and have a reliable way to communicate. Gamers discovered and loved the social aspect of the app. They ditched TeamSpeak and Skype in favor of it.

On September 16, 2021, Discord raised $500 million at about $15 billion valuations. It has raised a total of $982.6 million in funding over 14 rounds so far. 

Key Operational Metrics

1. Founded in 2015
2. 1,200+ employees
3. 150M+ monthly active users (MAUs)
4. 300+ million registered accounts
5. $130 million revenue in 2020

Databricks

The enterprise software company offers big firms an open and unified platform for data and artificial intelligence (AI).

The AI-powered data company has raised money from venture capital and non-venture capital investors. Fidelity and  Franklin Templeton have poured money into the startup.

Databricks raised $1.6 billion at a valuation of $38 billion in a Series H round. It has raised a total of $3.5 billion in funding over nine rounds.

Key Operational Metrics

1. Founded in 2013
2. 2,000+ employees
3. 5,000+ organizations use its  data lakehouse software
4. $600 million revenue in 2020
5. Google, Microsoft & Snowflake  are amongst its competitors

Klarna

Affirm, the “ buy now pay later” company had a very successful IPO last year; its stock skyrocketed to nearly 100% after IPO.

Other key players from the BNPL market will likely follow suit this year. Klarna is one of the most significant players in that space, and its growth has been rapid.  

According to a report from Worldpay,  Klarna processed $97 billion of global e-commerce transactions in 2020.

On June 10, 2021, Klarna raised $639 million at a valuation of $46 billion. It has raised a total of $3.7 billion in funding over 31 rounds.

Key Operational Metrics

1. Founded 2005
2. 90+ Million total active customers
3. 250K total number of merchants
4. 2M number of transactions per day
5. Live in 17 countries
6. ~3,800 employees
7. $1.2 billion revenue in 2020
8. $109.2 million net loss in 2020