The IPO market has woken up from its more than three-year slumber after the success of several new issues including Circle and CoreWeave. But while many bankers and venture capital executives are anticipating a next wave of high-profile deals in the fall, there is still a risk that tariffs and geo-political strife could derail the reinvigorated IPO climate.
More companies have gone public this year than in any time since 2021, which itself was a high mark for new issues. So far in 2025, 95 companies have listed on U.S. exchanges, raising $15.6 billion as of June 18, according to data from Dealogic. This is up 30% from last year at this time and nearly double the number of companies that listed in 2022 and 2023.
While this is the best season for IPOs in recent memory, it’s not on the level of the go-go days of 2021 when droves of companies, most of them unprofitable, sought to go public. “We are not back to 2021 levels where everyone was piling in,” said Matt Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of pre-IPO research that manages two IPO-focused ETFs (NYSE: IPO, IPOS).
“The IPO market is back from the dead because the last three years were so awful. But I wouldn’t say it’s vibrant. I would say it’s still pretty selective,” said Brad Bernstein, managing partner at private equity firm FTV Capital.
Many of the tariffs planned by Trump have been on a 90-day pause, which is set to expire next month. “I’d expect more volatility in July,” Roos said.
“There is still a possibility that tariffs will bite back and cause the IPO market to slow down again,” said Renaissance’s Kennedy.
Summer is typically a slow time for IPOs with many bankers going on vacation. That’s not expected to change this year. If markets remain stable and there are no huge macro issues, companies will continue going public this summer. But most high-profile deals are expected to wait for the fall, which is usually the strongest time for new issues. Some deals may also push to 2026.
Earlier this year, Renaissance Capital had expected the IPO window to fully open by July, Kennedy said. Now the research firm anticipates moderate activity, like two to three deals a week, he said. “We won’t be very busy,” Kennedy said.
Another big issue for this year’s crop of IPOs is aftermarket performance. During the IPO frenzy of 2021, 397 companies went public raising a record $142.4 billion. About 80% still remain below their IPO price. This bad performance helped drive investors away from new issues for several years. One company under pressure right now is Chime, which rose 37% in its debut but has fallen in several recent trading sessions. If Chime were to “break,” or drop below its $27 offer price, this could indicate a loss of investor sentiment and potentially impact other similar companies. Chime is currently trading at an estimated seven times revenue, but if these multiple drops to less than five times, then “you’re not going to see a lot of other consumer fintechs wanting to go public,” said Edwin Loredo, also a partner at Core Innovation. Chime declined to comment.
There’s also the issue of so-called lockups that all recently public companies must face. When businesses go public, insiders, usually employees and early investors, are often restricted from selling their shares for a certain time, usually between 90 to 180 days. These insiders are free to sell once the lockup expires, typically causing the shares to drop or become more volatile.
