The Most Anticipated Tech Exits to Watch in 2022

Though more than 50 tech companies went public through an IPO, direct listing or SPAC in 2021, it wasn’t a great year for the vast majority of them. Only one of those companies, only one — GlobalFoundries — is less than 20% below its high stock price.

The way public markets have repriced tech companies this year could have a lasting impact on new tech public listings into 2022 — not to mention the market disruption and hesitancy caused in part by COVID-19 that likely won’t go away in the coming months.

Some companies that were expected to list this year put their plans on hold due to market volatility, rising inflation, tightening monetary policy and supply chain disruptions, including Instacart and TikTok. SPACs were particularly popular in the U.S. in 2021, a trend likely to carry through into 2022.

Many companies that went public in 2021 have adjusted their guidance and listed with lower prices. The companies going public or otherwise seeking an exit in 2022 will need to prepare their guidance and pricing accordingly.

Here are some of the tech companies we anticipate will exit next year.

Instacart

Next year will be the year of Instacart’s IPO, which was pushed back from this year, as CEO Fidji Simo reportedly adjusted the timing as Instacart shifts its focus on growing its services beyond delivery. The company has been working with Goldman Sachs since last year on a direct listing. Instacart’s valuation doubled earlier this year to $39 billion after its revenue more than tripled to $1.5 billion last year.

Databricks

The world’s most popular data engineering tool, Databricks is the muscle that processes large volumes of structured or unstructured information easily. Databricks’ services help companies with data visualization, database management, and AI implementation.

And it’s a booming business. Databricks expects its revenue to increase by more than 75% next year, reaching $1 billion in 2022. Its most recent fundraising round garnered $1.6 billion at a $38 billion valuation. Though Databricks has no exact IPO date, it seems likely the company could go public next year.

Airtable

Cloud-based collaboration upstart Airtable doubled its valuation to $5 billion earlier in 2021 with a $200 million fundraise. More than 200,000 companies, including Netflix and Shopify, use Airtable’s low-code platform to build their collaborative apps.

Klarna

Last year, Swedish fintech startup Klarna saw its U.S. customer base double in 2020, to 20 million users. Founded in 2005, the company that lets shoppers split any purchase into four interest-free payments has a valuation of $45.6 billion. However, Klarna is taking its time easing into a public offering, as CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC earlier in 2021 that the market’s volatility gave him pause. “The volatility in the market right now makes me nervous to IPO to be honest,” Siemiatkowski told the news outlet at the London Tech Week gathering. “I think it would be nice to IPO when it’s a little bit more sound. And right now it doesn’t feel really sound out there.”

Impossible Foods

Founded by Stanford professor Pat Brown, Impossible Foods replaces meat products with plant-based alternatives. A recent Bloomberg article said the plant-based meat producer is looking at a capital raise of $500 million to give it a market capitalization of $7 billion.

Impossible has raised $1.5 billion since its founding. Reuters reported the company is planning a public listing and seeking a valuation of $10 billion. Brown confirmed Impossible Foods’ plans to list, but didn’t provide a timeframe. “At some point, we will go public,” Brown said. “But not any specified time in the future.”

Discord

Buzzy chat app Discord was in talks last year for a potential $10 billion acquisition by Microsoft, but that deal fell through.

Now analysts expect Discord to make its public debut in 2022. Discord raised $500 million in September 2021, giving it a valuation of $15 billion.

Reddit

Reddit is expected to go public early in 2022, after hiring an investment baker and lawyers for an IPO this year. Valued at $10 billion in a private fundraising round earlier this year, Reddit could be valued at more than $15 billion by the time of its IPO. Reddit saw explosive growth this year after retail investors moved en masse to its platform for tips on trading meme stocks, including GameStop.

ByteDance

On its own, Gen Z favorite social video platform TikTok is worth more than $50 billion, and its parent company ByteDance is estimated to be valued at nearly $250 billion. It’s not yet clear at what point in 2022 ByteDance will go public, as it continues to face some regulatory issues that have affected its Hong Kong IPO timing.

Stripe

With an eye-popping valuation of $95 billion, Stripe is considered by many to be next year’s most anticipated IPO. The Wall Street Journal said the company reported around $7.4 billion in revenue for 2020.

By the end of 2019, Stripe was processing hundreds of billions of dollars for millions of businesses worldwide by the end of 2019. Though Stripe has no stated plans to IPO and hasn’t filed documents, it’s reportedly already in talks with investment banks.