The IPO markets have been mostly on ice the past three years, preventing many companies from growing and leaving VCs struggling for liquidity.
But in 2024, there were some positive signs of revival. In the US, six $1bn tech IPOs took place, compared to two in 2023. And in November, buy now, pay later giant Klarna finally filed for its long-anticipated IPO in the US.
So what will 2025 bring for the IPO markets?
While a number of IPO candidates tell Sifted that the market still isn’t right for a listing, others say they’re beginning to get their ducks in a row.
Sifted pulled a long list of European scaleups that were founded between 2005 and 2020, have hit unicorn valuation and raised over $100m in funding from Dealroom. We’ve cross-referenced with public statements of intent from companies this year and reached out for comments ourselves to narrow the list down.
Bolt
Founded: 2013
HQ: Tallinn
Headcount: 4,000 employees
Last raise: €220m debt; May 2024
Investors: Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, LHV Group, Luminor Bank, Citibank, BNP Paribas
Mobility company Bolt — which has raised $1.9bn to date — isn’t in a hurry to IPO, but the company is laying the groundwork to ensure the business is ready to list when the market conditions are right, it told Sifted.
Bolt increased its revenue by 37% year-on-year in 2023 from €1.2bn to €1.7bn. In 2024, it hit €2bn in annual revenue.
“Going forward, we will continue to balance top-line growth with year-on-year profitability gains, while building a better product for customers with a particular focus on improving the quality of our service, increasing availability and offering better prices,” the company said.
1KOMMA5°
Founded: 2019
HQ: Berlin
Headcount: 1,900 employees
Last raise: €150m pre-IPO financing
Investors: California State Teachers’ Retirement System (Calstrs), G2 Venture Partners, 2150, Norrsken VC, Hamilton Lane, b2 venture, Eurazeo, eCapital and others
Solar unicorn 1KOMMA5° raised €150m in December 2024 to pave the way for an IPO.
The company originally said it was targeting a 2025 listing and was aiming to list in the US rather than in Europe. On raising its new financing, 1KOMMA5° said it is now targeting a listing in 2026.
1KOMMA5° had revenue of around €540m in 2024, it told PV magazine, missing its initial goal of €700m. That’s still an increase of almost 20% on the €450m revenue the company made in 2023.
Rohlik
Founded: 2014
HQ: Prague
Headcount: 2,000
Last raise: $170m at a $1.2bn valuation, according to Dealroom
Investors: Index Ventures, European Investment Bank, EBRD, Quadrille Capital, TCF Capital, Sofina Ventures
Czech online grocery scaleup Rohlik told Sifted that it is working towards an IPO in the short term (in the next 2-3 years), but a listing location has not yet been decided upon.
Its objectives over the next 12 months include growing in its five existing markets of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, increasing its productivity by 50% and growing revenue streams such as advertising to support its core grocery market business.
Rohlik says it made €1bn in revenue in 2024 and is working towards profitability in all its markets; Hungary and the Czech Republic are already profitable.
Rohlik has raised $763m to date.
Staffbase
Founded: 2014
HQ: Chemnitz, Germany
Headcount: 800
Last raise: €106m
Investors: General Atlantic, Insight Partners
Employee communications platform Staffbase told Sifted that an IPO is “an option” for the company and that it is “preparing for this possibility in the medium term.” However, no final decisions have been made regarding the timing or location of the IPO, it added.
“We’re considering both Frankfurt and New York. With DACH currently being our strongest market, Frankfurt is a logical option,” a company spokesperson told Sifted. “At the same time, our US market shows incredible growth potential, making an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange a compelling option as well.”
In the next 12 months, Staffbase will focus on expanding further in North America (which accounts for nearly half of its revenue) and the DACH region, and will explore other promising markets.
It plans to reach profitability by the end of 2025.
Bitpanda
Founded: 2014
HQ: Vienna
Headcount: 700 employees
Last raise: $263m Series C
Investors: Valar Ventures, Alan Howard, REDO Ventures, LeadBlock Partners, Jump Capital
In October 2024, Bloomberg reported that the Austrian crypto exchange was considering an IPO in Frankfurt, but that a potential sale could also be on the cards.
Bitpanda told Sifted that the company is “preparing for all potential scenarios to ensure (it) always has every option available.”
The company says it’s been profitable since its founding 10 years ago, excluding 2022 when it recorded a loss. 2024 is on track to be the most profitable year in Bitpanda’s history.
In the next 12 months, Bitpanda says it’s focused on strengthening its position in Europe’s B2C broker business. Additionally, it is looking to expand to “at least one market” outside of the EU.
Vestiaire Collective
Founded: 2009
HQ: Paris
Headcount: 600
Last raise: $79.1m debt, December 2022
Investors: HSBC, Societe Generale, Bank of America, Credit Agricole, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
French second hand cloths platform Vestiaire Collective is aiming to IPO in “the medium term,” it told Sifted. “For now, we remain fully focused on improving our offering to continue gaining market share.”
The company says it does not communicate its revenue and loss figures, but did say that its run rate GMV (gross merchandise value) exceeds €1bn. It plans to be profitable in the coming months. Currently, every transaction on the platform is profitable before taking into account fixed costs.
Celonis
Founded: 2011
HQ: Munich
Headcount: 3,000 employees
Last raise: $600m debt; August 2022
Investors: HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, SMBC Venture Capital and others
German process mining unicorn Celonis has raised a total of $1.8bn in debt and equity funding, and was last valued at $13bn, according to Dealroom data.
Celonis told Sifted that while it “can well imagine being a publicly listed company at some point in the future we do not have a specific timeline in mind.”
Celonis declined to give specific financial information, but said it is focused on growing the company and supporting “as many companies as possible to become more efficient, more resilient and also more sustainable.”
Enpal
Founded: 2017
HQ: Berlin
Headcount: 4,000 employees
Last raise: €1.1bn debt; March 2024
Investors: Barclays Europe, Bank of America and Credit Agricole CIB
Solar unicorn Enpal doubled its revenue in 2024 to €905m — and expanded to Italy. Its operative business is profitable.
Enpal is not planning to go public in the “near future”, but continues to evaluate all options, it told Sifted.
In 2025, it plans to continue its international expansion, and will focus on rolling out its virtual power plant, an AI-based energy trading system.
BlaBlaCar
Founded: 2006
HQ: Paris
Headcount: 800 employees
Last raise: €100m revolving credit facility, April 2024
Investors: HSBC, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, Citibank and Societe Generale
In 2023, French mobility company BlaBlaCar made €253m in revenue, a 29% increase from the year prior. The $2bn company says it has been profitable for 24 consecutive months and closed 2023 with positive EBITDA.
BlaBlaCar said “a potential IPO is not currently on the table”; its key objectives for this year involve strengthening its position in the shared mobility market, expanding its offering and improving its operational efficiency.
GetYourGuide
Founded: 2009
HQ: Berlin
Headcount: 800 employees
Last raise: $85m equity Series F and $109m revolving credit facility; June 2023
Investors: Equity: KKR, Temasek, Blue Pool Capital. Debt: Citi, KfW, UniCredit, BNP Paribas
Travel experiences unicorn GetYourGuide has long been considered one of Germany’s IPO hopes, but the company says it is not planning to go public right now, but that it “might be an option in future years.”
GetYourGuide has been focusing on growing its business in North America over the last two years, where it’s seeing significant traction. The company confirmed it’s profitable in all its core markets, but declined to share updated revenue figures.
OakNorth
Founded: 2015
HQ: London
Headcount: 228 employees
Last raise: $440m, February 2019
Investors: SoftBank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, The Clermont Group and Vision Fund, among others
OakNorth, a neobank focused on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), told Sifted it has “no plans” to list anywhere any time soon.
In its 2023 annual results, Oaknorth made £296.7m revenue, up from £221m revenue in 2022. The company first reached cashflow break-even in September 2015, within the first 11 months of launch, and says it has been profitable every year since.
The company said its main objective for the next 12 months is to “continue supporting scaling businesses (£1m-£100m turnover), providing them with access to the credit and banking services they need to pursue their growth ambitions.”
Qonto
Founded: 2016
HQ: Paris
Headcount: 1,600 employees
Last raise: €486m Series D
Investors: Alven, Tiger Global, Insight partners, Eurazeo, Tencent, Alkeon Capital, KKR, TCV, Valar Ventures, Exor Ventures
Qonto has raised over $689m in funding, and was last valued at $5bn in 2022.
While considered a strong IPO candidate by many investors, the company says it has “no concrete plans regarding a potential IPO in the short term.”
In the next 12 months, Qonto says it aims to accelerate its growth and services. “We will focus on enhanced payment solutions, streamlined company creation processes in all our markets, and developing our standalone e-invoicing solution to enable our customers to comply with the new EU regulation,” it told Sifted.
The company is also focused on getting to profitability. Since 2023, Qonto has achieved total profitability due to net interest income (NII) – which banks calculate by subtracting the interest they must pay their clients from the revenue they generate. Its next milestone is reaching operational profitability excluding NII.
Other future IPO candidates:
Doctolib. The French healthtech unicorn is often cited as one of France’s strongest candidates for a near-term IPO — but there are a few milestones the company needs to hit, such as reaching profitability, before it can publicly list, it told Sifted in a 2024 interview. A spokesperson for Doctolib told Sifted that “there has been no evolution on the IPO topic since then.”
Bending Spoons: The Italian unicorn, which has built a suite of mobile apps for content creators, says it has no short or mid term plans to IPO. The company says it has been profitable since 2013, its first year in business, and that its revenues in 2025 are expected to be over $1bn.
Rapyd: The UK fintech said that while an IPO in 2026 has been discussed, “no formal plans or commitments have been made.” Its priorities remain focused on strengthening its product suite and expanding its presence in its “high growth markets” of Europe, Latin America and Asia.
Omio: Travel booking platform Omio says that it believes that “markets need to become more favourable before an IPO can be seriously considered.” This year, the company is focused on continuing on its profitability journey (it had $10m EBITDA in 2024 and is free cash flow positive) and expanding its services in Southeast Asia.
Cabify: For Cabify, an IPO is one of many options the company could take to progress the business: “The IPO might be a way, but it is not the only way to achieve our goals,” the company told Sifted.
Personio: The HR tech unicorn changed its legal form from a GmbH (a German limited liability company) to a Societas Europaea (SE; a European public limited company) at the start of 2023, in a move widely seen by market watchers as a foundation for an IPO. A Personio spokesperson told Sifted that the company has not set a specific target date for a public listing.
Raisin: The company declined to comment on whether an IPO is on the agenda. It did say that it has been profitable since the last quarter of 2022 and that in 2023 it recorded a net profit for the first time of €1m. It’s focused on launching its platform in new markets and diversifying its product portfolio, it said.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/europe-ipo-candidates/
