IPO Delays Could Lead to Missed Opportunities
Delaying an IPO isn’t a decision companies make lightly. Going public takes years of preparation and significant financial investment—especially for large, high-revenue businesses.

But when markets become volatile, even companies with solid IPO plans may hit pause. In recent weeks, Klarna, StubHub, and others postponed their pre-IPO roadshows, mostly due to poor market conditions. One week saw the Dow Jones suffer its third-largest daily point loss ever, making it hard for any company to feel confident about launching an IPO.

How Market Conditions Impact IPO Plans
When IPOs are delayed, it’s often with the hope that conditions will soon improve. According to IPO expert Jay Ritter from the University of Florida, short-term delays might not be a problem. Companies can resume their roadshows once the market stabilizes.

However, longer delays tell a different story. Ritter notes that it’s rare for companies to delay an IPO for an extended period and still complete a successful public debut. The longer they wait, the less likely they are to follow through.

One exception is construction tech company Procore, which filed to go public in early 2020 and finally debuted on the NYSE more than a year later. On the flip side, WeWork is a cautionary tale—it postponed its IPO in 2019, went public via SPAC in 2021, and filed for bankruptcy in 2023.

Many Companies Are Holding Off on Public Filings
Instead of delaying public offerings after filing, many companies are now choosing to delay the filing process altogether.

Airbnb, for instance, held off on its 2020 IPO due to the pandemic but successfully went public in late 2021. Instacart filed confidentially in 2022 but waited over a year to make its filing public.

Other examples include AI chip maker Cerebras Systems, which paused its IPO after filing in September, partly due to security reviews. Digital bank Chime also filed confidentially in December but has yet to release a public prospectus. Navan, a business travel and expense firm, filed confidentially years ago and hasn’t resurfaced since.

Meanwhile, Figma recently made headlines with a new confidential IPO filing after its proposed sale to Adobe fell through.

From Delay to Withdrawal: A Difficult Choice
There comes a point when a company must choose between moving forward or backing out of an IPO. Withdrawing an offering is never taken lightly—and it can carry long-term consequences.

Jarrod Humphrey, a professor at Xavier University, explains that pulling out of an IPO can make it much harder to go public in the future. His research shows that between 1997 and 2021, about 1 in 6 IPOs on the Nasdaq and NYSE were withdrawn, resulting in billions in lost capital.

A recent high-profile example is Turo, the peer-to-peer car rental platform. It withdrew its IPO in February after a rough start to the year, including two high-profile incidents involving vehicles rented on its platform.

What’s Next for IPOs?
It’s unclear how many more companies will cancel or delay IPOs. Market conditions have shown some signs of improvement, especially in the tech sector. If the trend continues, we may see more companies move forward with their public listings.

Still, as delays stretch on, the chance of successful debuts continues to shrink. For companies considering IPOs, timing is everything—and the clock is ticking.