Unicorns In The Home Stretch: The Next Wave of Pre-IPO Companies on the Secondary Market

After successful initial public offerings earlier this year from startup giants, Uber, Beyond Meat, CrowdStrike, Pinterest, Lyft and Zoom Video Communications, the next wave of unicorns touching down on the stock exchange are approaching.

Unicorns, or tech companies with a pre-IPO evaluation of 1 billion dollars, have shown, placed and won in the first half of 2019 to varying degrees as publicly traded companies. Before their IPOs, shares of their companies were sold and traded in a secondary, “shadow market,” known as Pre-IPOs, which creates an influx of liquidity to the company before going public.

Pre-IPO shares, once saved for company employees and early investors, are now extended to accredited investors ahead of public trading at a discounted of the expected IPO price. Not everyone can stockpile shares of a pre-IPO company in their portfolio. Required by brokerage firms, financial qualifications of potential investors make Pre-IPO shares of a private company on the cusp of going public a scarce commodity.

With expectations and evaluations high, the next wave of unicorn shares is already trading before the opening bell of their corporation’s first day as a publicly-traded entity. Here are some of the in-demand pre-IPO shares of businesses expected to go public in the foreseeable future.

With a new 4.5 billion dollar evaluation, Peloton, the maker of high-end, indoor bikes, has recently filed with the SEC to go public. Accompanied by their fitness equipment is an on-demand and live cycle class subscription online video model.

Airbnb, the gold standard in the home rental marketplace, and a disruptor of the hotel industry has a much anticipated initial public offering and has so for the last couple of years. The company’s rapid-moving scalability and profitability in the sharing economy now offer other products such as experiences unique to the over 100,000 cities worldwide where it operates. A recent valuation of 23 million dollars, points to its share prices being among the year’s highest of unicorn IPOs.

Cybersecurity and big data startup, Bitmain Technologies is valued at 11 billion dollars ahead of its proposed IPO in early 2020. The crypto-mining goliath is utilized by governments and corporations around the world to provide big data analysis against fraud, cyber-attacks, and terrorism.

Valued at 1.85 billion dollars, same-day delivery service that is in nearly 3,000 cities in the US and Mexico, Postmates is still finding its footing in the unicorn stable. News has surfaced that the company has internally explored sales to its competitors DoorDash and Uber’s food delivery service branch, UberEats. However, the operation still (publically) plans on going public.

Twelve billion dollars is the latest valuation for biotech, anti-aging regenerative therapies titan Samumed. The San Diego based firm runs the gamut of the clinical trials it performs in creating treatments against osteoarthritis, cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, and other diseases.

Chinese-based, Digital Media and AI company, Bytedance have some estimates of a 75 billion dollar appraisal. Creator of the hugely popular video-sharing app, Tik-Tok, recently acquired its chief competition in Music.ly and now boasts over half a billion active users.

WeWork, now known as The We Company is accelerating plans to go public as early as September 2019 after a recent 47 billion dollar evaluation. The leader in tech culture curated, shared workspace provider for startups, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, despite its challenges and concerns. Though operating at a loss for the last couple of years, the company is growing and is courting more big bank backers ahead of the IPO.

Owning 70 percent of the e-cigarette market share in the United States, JUUL Labs, manufactures and sells electronic cigarettes and nicotine cartridges has recently garnered an evaluation of 15 billion dollars. Though under scrutiny for its flavor offerings and marketing practices that are amenable to teenage use, the company has received backing from big tobacco conglomerates like Altria.

Unlike the unicorns mentioned above, there’s no imminent plan to launch Elon Musk’s SpaceX into the IPO stratosphere. However, the buzz for this company has always been sky high, and in the pre-IPO landscape, it’s never too early for far-reaching investments.

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