The Funding Rounds needed to IPO in SaaS

How many rounds has it taken the latest crop of tech companies to go public? Below is the data from the last 76 SaaS IPOs going back to October 2017 (MongoDB).

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 $313mm (equity + debt — cash). The average was $723mm. At the time of IPO, software business had generated on median $0.58 of revenue for every dollar of investment and $0.89 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.

Thank you for your readership. See more blogs and SaaS data at blossomstreetventures.com. Email the author at sammy@blossomstreetventures.com.