The year 2024 witnessed some interesting IPOs, like the social platform Reddit (NYSE: RDDT), which went public in March and is up 273% since. Another interesting IPO from 2024 is NANO Nuclear Energy (NASDAQ: NNE), the company that is working on reinventing nuclear energy and bringing microreactors to the market. Companies like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft are already planning to open data centers that are powered by nuclear energy. NNE stock is up 500% since their IPO in May. As we approach 2025, an interesting list of innovative companies are expected to go public, some of them already known and used by many in their daily lives. Here are five upcoming IPOs in 2025:
1. Klarna
The Swedish fintech company was founded in 2005 by Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth, and Victor Jacobsson. The company provides online financial services, primarily known for its "buy now, pay later" payment solutions. Klarna partners with over 575,000 merchants across 26 countries, offering flexible payment options like direct payments, pay after delivery, and installment plans. The company announced in November that it has confidentially submitted its IPO filing to the SEC but did not provide any other details. Their last funding round was back in July 2022 when they closed $800 million financing at a $6.7 billion post-money valuation. Bloomberg reported that Klarna is working with around 12 banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and a group of European banks. The Bloomberg report also mentioned that analysts have estimated the valuation to be around $14.6 billion.
2. Cerebras Systems
Cerebras Systems is an American artificial intelligence (AI) company founded in 2015 by Andrew Feldman, Gary Lauterbach, Michael James, Sean Lie, and Jean-Philippe Fricker. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Cerebras builds computer systems designed for complex AI deep learning applications.
Cerebras is best known for its Wafer Scale Engine (WSE), the world's largest computer chip, which powers their AI systems. The company's flagship product, the CS-2 system, is capable of accelerating AI compute tasks by orders of magnitude compared to contemporary graphics processors, as per the product’s fact sheet claim. It also claims that this allows for significantly reduced training times, from days to minutes, and faster inference in production.
The company announced at the end of September that it has filed the registration statement with the SEC. The announcement did not include any detail on the IPO other than that the company intends to trade under the ticker “CBRS”. However, the SEC filing reported that the company’s revenue in 2022 and 2023 was $15.6 million and $57.1 million, respectively. The revenue for the first six months of 2024 was $136.4 million. The net loss of the first six months of 2024 was $66.6 million, a 14% reduction year-over-year. According to a Bloomberg report, the company is looking to raise as much as $1 billion in the IPO at a valuation of up to $8 billion.
3. Chime
Chime is a financial technology company that offers online banking services without traditional fees. Founded in 2012, the digital bank provides a range of financial products, including checking and savings accounts, fee-free overdraft protection, and early access to paychecks through its "MyPay" feature. The company partners with The Bancorp Bank, N.A., and Stride Bank, N.A.
Bloomberg reported last week that Chime has submitted a confidential filing for IPO. The company’s last funding round in 2021 brought its valuation to $25 billion. However, a report by Fortune earlier this year mentioned that Chime’s share price in the private market has dropped 76% to $16.40 per share, implying a valuation of $5.9 billion. Forge, the private market that Fortune’s report quoted the share price from, has recently updated the share price to $24.87, implying a valuation of $8.9 billion.
4. Databricks
Databricks is a global data, analytics, and AI company founded in 2013 by the original creators of Apache Spark. Headquartered in San Francisco, Databricks provides a cloud-based platform designed to help enterprises build, scale, and govern data and AI applications.
Databricks’ website says that it serves over 10,000 organizations worldwide, including major companies like Block, Comcast, Condé Nast, Rivian, Shell, and over 60% of the Fortune 500.
Last November, CNBC reported that Databricks is raising $5 billion at a $55 billion valuation. The report also said that the funding round was designed to help Databricks employees sell their shares. Such a move could indicate that the company is not in an urge to go public yet. However, on December 17th, Databricks announced that it is raising $10 billion at a $62 billion valuation and that it has already completed $8.6 billion with $1.4 billion to go.
The report also provided some insight into the company’s performance and growth. It said that the third quarter that ended on October 31, 2024, has seen 60% growth year-over-year. The company is expecting to cross $3 billion revenue run-rate and be free cash flow positive in the fourth quarter ending January 31, 2025. Additionally, their intelligent data warehousing product, Databricks SQL, has achieved a $600 million revenue run-rate, marking a growth of more than 150% year-over-year.
Ali Ghodsi, Databricks CEO, said in an interview at Axios AI Summit that the IPO could be as early as 2025 or later in 2026. Among Databricks investors are Nvidia, Capital One, Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, and Fidelity.
Should you always buy stocks at the IPO?
The examples of successful IPOs mentioned earlier are good examples so far, but that isn’t always the case. Research on the company and company’s performance should be done before determining a fair stock price and entry point.