We will take a look at the 15 most valuable pre-IPO companies in the world. To skip our analysis of the recent market trends, you can go directly to see the 5 Most Valuable Pre-IPO Companies in The World.
Pre-IPO companies are privately held companies that are in the process of preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). Investing in pre-IPO companies can offer better returns albeit with greater risks as the shares can potentially be bought at a lower price than they would be available once the company goes public.
The IPO activity hit record levels in 2021 with IPOs of nearly 2,400 companies across the globe to raise a combined total of $460 billion, according to an EY report. In comparison, 2022 witnessed a massive shrinkage in both deal volume as well as value as the IPO activity was recorded at only 1,333 IPOs, 45% lower year-on-year, with total proceeds of $179 billion, 61% lower than the previous year. The Americas region was the most heavily impacted region in terms of IPO activity as the figures dropped to a 13-year low by volume and a 20-year low by value with only 130 IPOs with proceeds of $9 billion, according to the report.
The decline can mostly be attributed to the significant volatility in the market caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, among other factors. The IPO market is expected to recover by the second half of the year as market volatility lowers and interest rates stabilize. A strong IPO pipeline has been built as multiple companies had to shelve their IPOs for future dates due to the prevalent market conditions.
Methodology
We have picked the 15 most valuable pre-IPO companies in the world by shortlisting companies that have either announced plans for IPOs in the recent future or are expected to file for IPOs based on the growth level of the company and industry dynamics. We took the valuation data for these companies from leading news websites as well as secondary market securities websites and used the company’s own disclosures about pertaining to their valuations for corroboration.
Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd., doing business as “BYJU’S”, is a leading education technology company based in Bangalore, India. The company offers technology-based learning solutions to more than 150 million students around the world under its family of brands which includes Disney-BYJU’S Early Learn, BYJU’S Future School, Epic!, Osmo, Tynker, Toppr and WhiteHat Jr.
BYJU’S is backed by notable investors including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia, Bond Capital, Silver Lake, BlackRock, Sofina, Tencent, Prosus (previously Naspers Ventures), CPPIB, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Times Internet, Aarin Capital, and IFC, among others. The company raised $250 million in new funding at a valuation of $22 billion in October 2022.
14. Chime Financial, Inc.
Valuation: $25.5 billion
San Francisco, California-based Chime Financial, Inc., commonly known as Chime, is a financial technology company offering digital banking services. Founded in 2012, Chime partners with The Bancorp Bank, N.A. and Stride Bank, N.A. to power the bank accounts of its members and for issuance of debit cards.
In August 2021, Chime was valued at $25.5 billion when the company raised $750 million in Series G funding round from investors including SoftBank, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, and Dragoneer Investment Group, among others.
13. Cruise
Valuation: $30 billion
Founded in 2013, San Francisco, California-based Cruise is a technology company focused on the development and commercialization of autonomous vehicle technology. Cruise has a fleet of more than 300 all electric autonomous vehicles in Phoenix and San Francisco and employs more than 2,400 personnel.
In June 2022, Cruise received the first-ever Driverless Deployment Permit granted by the California Public Utilities Commission, which allowed the company to charge a fare for driverless rides in San Francisco. Cruise completed 1.0 million driverless miles in February 2023.
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) owns more than 80% stake in Cruise with the acquisition of SoftBank’s stake in the company in March 2022 for $2.1 billion. To date, Cruise has raised nearly $10 billion in funding from investors including Honda, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW), and Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT), and currently has a valuation of $30 billion.
12. Waymo
Valuation: $30 billion
Mountain View, California-based Waymo LLC is a self-driving technology development company founded in 2009. Waymo offers three main products and services: Waymo Driver – fully autonomous technology with tens of millions of miles driven across more than 13 states in the U.S., Waymo One – a ride-hailing service serving riders in Metro Phoenix and San Francisco, and Waymo Via – an autonomous driving solution for transporting commercial goods. Waymo reportedly has a valuation of more than $30 billion.
11. Fanatics, Inc.
Valuation: $31 billion
Jacksonville, Florida-based Fanatics, Inc. is a leading global digital sports platform with offerings including e-commerce and licensed merchandise, physical and digital trading cards and collectibles, and online sports betting and iGaming. The company boasts exclusive relationships with more than 900 sports properties including major sports leagues and clubs and has a database of more than 90 million consumers worldwide.
In March 2022, Fanatics raised $1.5 billion in a funding round from investors including Fidelity Management & Research Co, funds managed by BlackRock Inc. and Michael Dell’s family office. In December 2022, Fanatics raised another $700 million in an investment round led by Clearlake Capital Group LP, at a valuation of $31 billion.
10. Epic Games, Inc.
Valuation: $31.5 billion
Epic Games, Inc. is a leading interactive entertainment company and provider of 3D engine technology based in Cary, North Carolina. Founded in 1991 by Tim Sweeney, Epic Games has more than 50 offices worldwide operates Fortnite, one of the world’s largest games with over 350 million accounts and 2.5 billion friend connections. The company also develops Unreal Engine, which powers the world’s leading games.
In April 2022, Epic Games, Inc. was valued at $31.5 billion in an investment round in which its existing investor Sony Group Corporation as well as KIRKBI, the family-owned holding and investment company behind The LEGO Group, invested $1 billion each.
9. Revolut
Valuation: $33 billion
Founded in 2015, London-based Revolut is a digital banking and financial services provider. The company provides money transfer and exchange, as well as several other financial services such as peer-to-peer payments, Saving Vaults, <18 accounts, Stays for holiday booking, and Trading. It has amassed a user base of more than 25 million retail customers worldwide and processes more than 330 million transactions a month.
In July 2021, Revolut announced the raise of $800 million in Series E funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global Management, valuing the company at $33 billion. To date, the company has raised $1.7 billion in funding from investors including TSG Consumer Partners, TCV, DST Global, Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, and others.
8. Databricks Inc.
Valuation: $38 billion
San Francisco, California-based Databricks, Inc. is a software technology company that develops a web-based platform allowing enterprise users to unify their data warehouses and data lakes in one simple platform to handle all data, analytics, and AI use cases. The company was founded by the original creators of Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow in 2013 and boasts more than 7,000 organizations worldwide among its clients, including ABN AMRO, Condé Nast, Regeneron and Shell, among others.
On August 31, 2021, Databricks, Inc. announced the raise of $1.6 billion in Series H funding round led by Counterpoint Global, valuing the company at $38 billion. Other investors of the company include Baillie Gifford, ClearBridge Investments, UC Investments, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, Fidelity Management & Research, Franklin Templeton, GIC, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and Tiger Global Management, among others. To date, the company has raised nearly $3.6 billion in funding from its investors.
7. Canva
Valuation: $40 billion
Sydney, Australia-based Canva Pty. Ltd. is a software technology company offering an online design and publishing platform with an integrated marketplace that has both free and paid stock photography, fonts, illustrations, and thousands of templates ranging from presentations, social media graphics, posters, apparel to videos, plus a huge library of fonts, stock photography, illustrations, video footage, and audio clips.
Launched in 2013, Canva community reached the milestone of more than 15 billion published designs on the platform in February 2023. The company boasts more than 110 million monthly active users across more than 190 countries and territories worldwide.
Canva was valued at $40 billion in a $200 million funding round led by T. Rowe Price announced in September 2021. Existing Canva investors, including Franklin Templeton, Sequoia, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer Investments, Blackbird, and AirTree Ventures also participated in the funding round.
6. Arm
Valuation: $40 billion
Cambridge, England-based Arm Ltd. is the world’s leading semiconductor intellectual property company. Owned by Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp., Arm Ltd. technologies have been used in more than 250 billion chips worldwide, ranging from the sensor to the smartphone and the supercomputer.
SoftBank Group had acquired Arm Ltd. for $32 billion in 2016. In September 2020, SoftBank Group announced that it had agreed to sell Arm Ltd. to GPU-maker NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in a stock and cash transaction that valued the company at $40 billion. The transaction was terminated in February 2022 due to regulatory hurdles. SoftBank is preparing for a potential IPO of the company in 2023.
