In 2016, a bunch of tech companies went public, including Coupa, Line, Nutanix, Talend, and Twilio. Now a new batch is in the running for an initial public offering (IPO).
Many of these companies get their money by selling to other companies, typically the largest companies in the world. But there are also a few IPO contenders that are already household names because they have millions and millions of end users. Should even one or two of these go public in 2017, this will be remembered as a big year for tech IPOs. One of the contenders, in particular, could raise $4 billion in its deal — an ungodly sum in recent years, though not without precedent.
All the companies on this list have recently been highlighted as IPO contenders by private company research startup CB Insights, IPO exchange traded funds (ETF) manager Renaissance Capital, or both firms.
Without further ado, here’s our top 2017 tech IPO candidates:
Airbnb
The startup that lets you pay to stay in other people’s homes and rent out your own is eight years old now, and it has taken on about $4 billion in funding. Think it’s about time for that thing to go? I’ll say. Airbnb’s investors include Google Capital Capital G, Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, and Tiger Global.
Anaplan
Cloud-based financial planning software provider Anaplan reportedly hit unicorn status earlier this year. Investors include Coatue Management, DFJ Growth, Salesforce, and Workday.
AppNexus
This ad tech company counts publishers like Bloomberg, Dow Jones, and ESPN as its customers. Investors include News Corp.
Apttus
Last year, Salesforce acquired one of Apttus’ top competitors, SteelBrick, a deal that was notable because Salesforce had previously invested in Apttus. Other investors in the quote-to-cash software company include Gulf Islamic Investments and Iconiq Capital. In September, chief executive Kirk Krappe told Fortune that the company was looking to go public in the first half of 2017.
BuzzFeed
LOL. Yeah. That BuzzFeed. All those goofy articles over the years have helped BuzzFeed accumulate a major audience and finance more serious journalism. In November, NBCUniversal confirmed to Variety that it had invested another $200 million in BuzzFeed. Other investors include Lerer Hippeau Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Hearst Ventures.
Cloudflare
The content distribution network (CDN) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation service is often in the news because so many companies rely on it to keep their websites going even under heavy loads of traffic. Cloudflare last announced funding in 2015, and, at the time, cofounder and chief executive Matthew Prince said an IPO could happen as soon as 2017.
Credit Karma
About a year and a half ago, personal finance company Credit Karma said it had raised $175 million at a $3.5 million valuation. Recently, the company introduced a tax preparation service, challenging the likes of H&R Block and Intuit.
Domo
Cloud-based business analytics service Domo said in March that it had held its valuation at $2 million for its most recent $131 million round. It’s competing against some of the biggest technology companies, including Microsoft and Salesforce.
Dropbox
It’s been nearly two years since cloud syncing and sharing service Dropbox saw competitor Box go public. This year, Dropbox reached 500 million users. It last disclosed a funding round in 2014 at a valuation of $10 billion.
ForeScout
Network security company ForeScout, which was founded in 2000, announced a $76 million funding round at a billion-dollar valuation in January 2016. In…