Investors could have a host of newly minted stocks to choose from in 2025 with the market for initial public offerings heating up.
The roster of expected IPOs in 2025 includes several high-profile financial technology stocks and artificial intelligence plays. PitchBook analysts predict some 20 unicorns—private companies valued at more than $1 billion—could come to market in 2025 under ideal conditions.
This week could bring the first big IPO of the year with the listing of natural gas exporter Venture Global. The firm will seek a valuation of up to $65 billion—a blockbuster debut and one sign that a long-awaited IPO rebound is underway.
Among the other big IPOs that could hit the market in 2025:
- Chime
- Klarna
- Medline Industries
- SailPoint Technologies
- Cerebras Systems
- CoreWeave
“There’s already big IPOs coming to market,” says Angelo Bochanis, an IPO data and index associate at Renaissance Capital. “It’s just a question of the speed and the scale of the IPO recovery.”
Top IPOs to Watch in 2025
Analysts credit the rosy outlook for IPOs in 2025 to a potent combination of factors. Stocks are entering the third year of a bull market, the economy is poised to keep growing, and investors are optimistic that the Federal Reserve will continue cutting interest rates, even if the scope of those cuts may be smaller than previously expected.
2024 brought more IPO activity than the two previous years, but it still felt short of a typical year. This year could be another story. “We believe the rebound in 2024, coupled with a better macro backdrop, is the start of another multiyear period of IPO value exceeding $50 billion annually,” PitchBook private equity analysts wrote last year.
Some names are already generating buzz. Market watchers are keeping a close eye on fintech firms and AI plays, as well as more established private companies with proven track records of success. Here are six IPO candidates investors should watch in 2025.
Chime and Klarna
Mobile banking firm Chime is among the buzziest IPO candidates for the year ahead. The firm is valued at $25 billion, according to PitchBook, and it has raised more than $2.6 billion in venture capital funding since it was founded over a decade ago.
The company filed confidentially for an IPO at the end of last year, according to media reports. Duncan Davidson, a general partner and co-founder of Bullpen Capital, is looking at the firm as a litmus test for the success of other IPOs in the coming year. “If it goes out early and does well, it’s a really good bellwether,” he says.
Two of Chime’s peers in the fintech space, Klarna and Stripe, are also on the shortlist for IPOs this year. Sweden-based Klarna, a buy now/pay later company, has filed to list its IPO in the United States. PitchBook pegs Klarna’s most recent valuation at $6.7 billion.
“It ... looks like the kind of company that would attract a lot of interest, in terms of being kind of a tech IPO, but could also stand to benefit from sustained consumer spending,” says Bochanis.
Medline Industries
Medline, a medical supply firm based in Illinois, is another candidate for a blockbuster IPO in 2025. Medline was acquired by its current private equity owners—Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman—in 2021.
The firm was last valued at more than $42 billion, according to PitchBook, and analysts at Renaissance Capital predict it could raise some $50 billion in an IPO. Bochanis says Medline stands apart from other likely entrants into the market because of its size and age. “It’s a mature business,” he says. “They’re one of the biggest players in the field.” Medline filed confidentially for an IPO in December, Reuters reported.
SailPoint Technologies
Founded in 2004, SailPoint is a cybersecurity firm that develops identity governance software for businesses. The company is owned by the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, which took it private in 2022 in a $6.9 billion deal, according to PitchBook. The firm was last valued at $8.5 billion. It filed publicly for an IPO earlier this month, and it plans to list on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker SAIL.
Cerebras Systems
California-based Cerebras is capturing the attention of investors looking for the next big AI play. Cerebras designs chips and software that power AI applications. Davidson likens the firm to semiconductor giant Nvidia NVDA. “It’s a pure play AI chip thing,” he says. The firm is currently valued at $4.25 billion and backed by multiple venture capital investors, according to PitchBook. It filed with the SEC for a public listing on the Nasdaq in September.
CoreWeave
A larger player in the AI space is cloud infrastructure firm CoreWeave, which is valued at $23 billion and has raised $1.6 billion from venture capital investors, according to PitchBook. Bochanis says CoreWeave’s business model of renting hardware to other businesses could make its public debut especially compelling. “It’s a way for a lot of smaller companies to access the power that they need for really intensive AI uses … it could attract a lot of interest from investors that are looking for new AI plays,” he says.
Headwinds and Tailwinds for IPOs in 2025
Filling the sails of the IPO market in the year ahead is clarity surrounding the incoming Trump administration, which market watchers expect to be friendlier to corporate America. “There’s a sense of optimism amongst the investor community that … it’ll be easier to get deals done,” says Mike Bellin, IPO Services Leader at PwC US. “All of that bodes well for potential investors and IPOs as riskier assets … you have more certainty around where the administration is going, and we didn’t necessarily have that in the past.”
That’s not to mention the force of momentum from 2024. “Under the surface, there’s a belief in the ecosystem that the market will open up,” says Davidson.
Pitchbook analysts find that historically, that momentum tends to build after a few slow years. “We are encouraged by the observation that IPO activity, after a sharp decline, often has a three-to-five-year run of strength,” they wrote recently.
But the policy landscape in 2025 will also bring uncertainties for investors, and those uncertainties could put a dent in IPO activity. Bellin points to the threat of lingering inflation, which could force the Fed to leave interest rates higher for longer. That could weigh on investor confidence and the IPO market. Rising bond yields and heightened volatility in fixed-income markets are also on investors’ radar.
IPO Backlog
2025’s IPO market won’t just be fintech and AI. There are 170 companies in the public IPO pipeline, according to data from Renaissance Capital, and more than 200 companies in the “shadow backlog” that could list within the next two years, according to the firm’s estimates.
“There’s a lot of built-up supply on the IPO side,” says Bellin. Given the slowdown in IPOs in 2022 and 2023, market watchers say that older, more valuable startups that stayed private longer than they otherwise would have could begin to hit public markets this year. In 2025, Bellin expects IPO prospects to be broadly distributed across sectors, but he points specifically to ongoing momentum from the life science and pharma industries.
And of course, big tech is not going anywhere. “There’s a lot of excitement,” Bellin says, though he believes many AI companies are too early in their life cycles to list this year. “We’ll see some activity in that space in 2025 but I think there’s probably room to grow for many of those organizations” before they list, he adds.
If markets continue to cheer the prospect of lower rates, PitchBook’s venture capital analysts note that “we should see more risk appetite enter public markets, enticing tech companies with the idea that now is better than never.”
Bellin says energy and renewables companies could see more momentum as the AI industry continues to generate more demand for power, and adds that consumer companies could also continue to thrive.
The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar's editorial policies.
