Ten companies announced their intentions to go public this week, making it the most active week for IPO filings since the first week of May 2011. The ten companies include local business reviews site Angie's List (ticker TBA), social commerce monitoring platform Bazaarvoice (BV), oil and gas company Dynamic Offshore Resources (DOR), underbanked consumer lender Community Choice Financial (CCFI), and the six filings we reported on Wednesday: Brightcove (BCOV), Genomatica (GENO), Jive Software (JIVE), Eloqua (ELOQ), Laredo Petroleum (LPI) and Inergy Midstream LP (NRGM). The group includes a mix of technology (5), energy (4) and financial (1) companies, which represent the top three IPO sectors by deal count over the last 12 months, together representing 60% of IPO activity. After this flurry of new filings, the US IPO pipeline now stands at 182 companies, the highest in a decade (previous peak was 172 in 3Q07).
Of note, five of these new filings are venture capital-backed subscription-based tech companies (Angie's List, Bazaarvoice, Brightcove, Jive Software, Eloqua). Currently, 25% of the US IPO pipeline is VC-backed. Additionally, six of the nine are unprofitable and have less than $75 million in revenue, including all five tech companies and the biochemicals maker Genomatica. Following the massive sell-off in early August and ongoing uneasiness in the markets, it remains to be seen whether investors have regained their appetite for risky tech ventures. Based on the recent filing activity, it appears that a number of issuers and bankers think the answer to this is yes.
