Funding rounds needed to IPO
How many rounds has it taken the latest crop of tech companies to go public? Below is the data from the last 73 SaaS IPOs going back to October 2017 (MongoDB).
Software. On median, publicly traded software companies raised through their Series E before going public. Note that Palantir went all the way through their Series K. Other companies like Datto did zero rounds because they were private equity owned. Net investment of software companies at the time of IPO was $301mm (equity + debt — cash). The average was $648mm. At the time of IPO, software business had generated on median $0.60 of revenue for every dollar of investment and $0.92 on average.
Consumer Focused Tech. The number of SaaS IPOs is far greater than consumer focused tech, but we do have the data on 12 IPOs. The range is wide as Doximity raised only through the Series C while Duolingo went to a Series H. Others like Bumble had no rounds because they were largely owned by private equity at the time of going public. Net investment was $230mm on median and $349mm on average. These companies generated on median $1.05 of revenue per dollar of net investment, and $1.03 on average.
Notably, the data does not show whether there were multiple occurrences of the same round (for instance B, B1, B2) or bridge rounds, but both are unlikely since these companies all were successful enough to go public. Overall, to get to the promised land, it’s likely going to take some serious fundraising so make sure your capital formation strategy and use of capital is well planned and efficient. Only take the capital you need.
Sammy is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Blossom Street Ventures. Visit us at blossomstreetventures.com and email directly at sammy@blossomstreetventures.com. We invest in companies with run rate revenue of $3mm to $30mm, with year over year growth of 20% to 100%+ depending on revenue. We lead or follow in growth rounds and special situations like inside rounds, small rounds, rushed rounds, corralling investors with our term sheet, cap table clean up, and extensions. We can commit in 3 weeks and our check is $1mm to $4mm. Also visit https://blossomstreetventures.com/metrics/ for always up-to-date SaaS metrics.
