Private for Longer: The New IPO Timeline
The Rise of the Delayed IPO
As the year begins, many people look back at the past 12 months and take stock of what went well, and what did not. For many, that means setting fresh goals for the year ahead. Studies suggest, however, that close to 80% of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by sometime in February, with only around 10% of people achieving their goals by the end of the year.¹
This means that much of a company’s early growth now happens while they are still private. Decades ago, investors could buy shares in companies like Apple just four years after it was founded. More recently, companies such as Uber waited about 10 years to go public, and Airbnb waited roughly 17 years. By the time these firms reach the public markets today, a significant portion of their early expansion has already taken place.
This trend is expected to persist, leaving investors with fewer small public companies to choose from, as many businesses now enter the market at later and more mature stages of development.