This week, the B2B Software market saw three of its grown-ups file for IPOs: Hortonworks, one of the first Big Data plays to file an S-1; New Relic, SaaS that helps developers track the traction of their products; and OnDeck Capital, the online SMB lender. Even as early stage investors, this exit market is something that’s interesting to Bowery simply because it says a lot about the enterprise boom.
Just last month, we were all told the exit market was going to slow down if not halt for the rest of the year. But the enterprise and B2B Software boom formed its own version of immunity to this volatility. Apart from the Alibaba anomaly, VC-backed IPOs made up a meek $1.6B of the IPO market in Q3. Yet these three companies are picking the pace back up again. Even next to the floundering post-IPO prices of consumer companies like Wayfair, AdTech and MarkTech companies like HubSpot kept our space a bit more optimistic.
So what does this mean for the B2B tech space? These filings could imply a number of trends that will carry through 2015. Perhaps the precariousness that slowed everyone down last month is now last month’s issue, or maybe the B2B software space is simply growing at a rate that is more immune to the current market’s volatility.
But one thing that we’re confident on: We’re in an enterprise software boom and now more than ever – public investors want to get in on the action.
851 listings raised more than $186b in 2014 so far, putting this year back on track to be the most exciting IPO market we’ve seen since the dot com boom. The exit market for tech companies is now back on track, and enterprise software is paving the way.
