The dismal performance of blockbuster IPOs such as electric car maker, Rivian, the trading platform Robinhood, and others forced many top anticipated 2022 IPOs to sit on the sideline and wait for economic conditions to improve. So, TPG Partners Inc was the only company from our 2022 IPO Draft Class that went public last year. 

Billion-dollar unicorns that raised beaucoup money during the easy money era probably can’t wait for the 2022 beaten-down stock market and other unfavorable market conditions to improve. Going public might not be entirely up to those companies’ executives.

Private Investors and other circumstances might force Stripe, Reddit, and other companies from FMC’s last year’s Most Anticipated IPO list to enter the public offerings market in 2023. 

One of those circumstances is valuation. Many of those companies had down rounds last year, meaning they raised private funds at a lower valuation than the previous year. For example, Stripe Inc raised private funds at a $74 billion valuation which is $20 billion lower than its last round of structured financings. As a result, financialmiddleclass.com‘s 2023 IPO Draft Class has many of last year’s companies and some newcomers.

2023 IPO DRAFT CLASS: Ranking the Top Prospects

The public offerings market collapsed last year. One hundred eighty-one companies went public compared to 1035 in 2021. It was an 82.5% drop. 

It was a gloomy year for the stock markets and the financial markets. The S&P 500 fell 19.4, its most significant calendar-year decline since a 38% drop in 2008.  

Both the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow suffered historical declines. They fell 33%  and 9%, respectively. Both speculative and safe assets rattled last year. Bitcoin lost over 60% of its value, and fixed-income also yielded negative returns.

2023 IPO DRAFT CLASS: Fanatics

Fanatics is a global leader in licensed sports merchandise with a diversified business model, including licensed sportswear, sports collectibles, sports merchandise, sports betting, and much more.

The pending acquisition of BetParx sportsbook will give a solid footing in the sports betting business. Buying Mitchell & Ness allows the company to corner the authentic vintage jerseys market. Moreover, its subsidiary Topps provides the company with a legal monopoly in the trading cards business. 

Private investors have a healthy appetite for global e-commerce in sports merchandise. It has already raised nearly $5 billion in venture capital funding. It raised $700 million at a $31 billion valuation last year.

Key Operational Metrics  

1. Founded in 1995
2. 10,000+ employees
3. 900+ partnerships of the sports world’s most prominent brands
4. Operates its website and 300+ team and league e-commerce websites 
5. $3.5bin revenue in 2021
6. Academy Sports+ Outdoors, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Big 5 Sporting Goods are among its competitors.

2023 IPO DRAFT CLASS: Reddit Inc

The 17-year-old popular social media platform was one of the companies we were sure would go public last year. The company filed a confidential S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announcing its plan to go public in December 2021.  

Reddit did not access the private market last year; its previous funding round was on august 12, 2021, at a more than $10 billion valuation.   

Key Operational Metrics  

1. Founded in 2005
2.  52 million daily users as of the last funding round
3.  3.5+ million subreddits 
4. ~700 employees as of February 2021
5. $350 million in revenue in 2021
6. Twitter Inc & Facebook are among its major competitors.

Stripe

Stripe’s co-founder, John Collinson, said, “they were very happy staying private.” 

Because they had already raised $2.2 billion over 20 rounds in the private market when we published our list last year, we believed that early investors would start getting antsy. The payments processor did not raise any money last year.

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. $12 Billion in revenue in 2021, nearly $5 billion more than in 2020
7. PayPal & Square are among its major competitors,

2023 IPO DRAFT CLASS: Instacart

The grocery delivery company was on our inaugural list two years ago. It did not go public in 2021 because it had easy access to private funding. So far, it has raised $2.9 billion at a $39 billion valuation.  

However, people who have access to inside information on the company said that Instacart cut its internal valuation to around $10 billion, nearly 75% less than its last round of funding valuation.

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. $1.8 billion in revenue in 2021 is about $115M more than the previous year.

2023 IPO DRAFT CLASS: Chime

The jury is still out on whether or not financial technology or fintech can unseat brick-and-mortar banks. Like many other firms on this list, the financial technology company did not raise any private funding last year. 

It last raised $750M on August 13, 2021, at a $25 billion valuation, bringing its total funding amount to $2.3 billion.

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. $1B million in revenue in 2021, a 58% increase from the previous year.

2023 IPO DRAFT CLASS: Discord

The voice and text chat App, which is highly popular with gamers, is gaining popularity amongst non-games due to the ongoing at Twitter since Elon Musk acquired it.  

Discord’s active users increased from 150 millions to 350 millions, and those users are spending at least 280 minutes on the platform every month.

In 2022, The group-chatting App was one of the bright spots in venture capital funding. It raised $500 million at a $15 billion valuation which is more than double its previous one when it last accessed venture capital funding.

Key Operational Metrics

1. Founded in 2015
2. 650+ employees
3. 150M+ monthly active users (MAUs)
4. 350+ million registered accounts
5. $200+ million revenue in 2021

2023 IPO DRAFT CLASS: Databricks

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

More retailers are finding value in partnering with the firm whose proprietary technologies allow them to access updated point-of-sale, improve forecasting, and manage inventory effectively and efficiently.

On August 31, 2021, the data lake company raised $1.6 billion at a $38 billion valuation bringing its total venture capital funding to $3.5b over nine rounds.

Key Operational Metrics

1. Founded in 2013
2. 4,000+ employees
3. 7,000+ organizations use its data lakehouse software
4. $405+ million in revenue in 2021
5. Google, Microsoft & Snowflakes are among its competitors.