If you’re looking for hot growth stocks, initial public offerings (IPOs) are a great place to start your search. These freshly minted public companies tend to make a splash in the market with big growth expectations and high price tags to match. Although not every IPO stock will be a winner, some of the most valuable companies in the world, such as Amazon (AMZN -3.07%) and Apple (AAPL -0.7%), were once initial public offerings and have turned early investors into millionaires.
Definition
What is an IPO stock?
An IPO stock is a stock that has recently gone public. That means it has gone through the process of selling its shares to a group of investors, typically with the help of an underwriter, and then listing the stock with an exchange like the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, where investors can easily buy and sell it.
A company can sell more shares to the public in what's typically known as a follow-on offering, or a secondary offering. There is an important distinction between the two, though they are sometimes used interchangeably.
- Follow-on offering: A follow-on offering refers to a company selling its stock after its IPO. Companies are free to do this at any time, though they must file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and it means that existing shareholders will be diluted. This can be called a primary offering.
- Secondary offering: A secondary offering refers to a block of stock being sold by an existing shareholder, not the company. This also typically requires public notification through an SEC filing. The main difference between a secondary and a primary offering is that a secondary offering doesn't dilute existing shareholders, though it also doesn't raise any money for the company.
Recent IPOs
Recent IPOs
After a boom in IPOs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the market went ice-cold in 2022 as tech stocks plunged and interest rates soared. However, as the Nasdaq Composite has bounced back, the IPO market has shown signs of life once again, with several new issues debuting over the last year.
| Name and ticker | Market cap | Dividend yield | Industry |
|---|---|---|---|
| CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) | $65 billion | 0.00% | IT Services |
| Figma (NYSE:FIG) | $29 billion | 0.00% | Software |
| Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL) | $32 billion | 0.00% | Software |
| Omada Health (NASDAQ:OMDA) | $1 billion | 0.00% | Healthcare Providers and Services |
| Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) | $27 billion | 0.00% | Software |
1. CoreWeave
CoreWeave (CRWV -1.76%), a generative artificial intelligence (AI)-focused cloud infrastructure business, had a disappointing IPO, but the stock has surged since then, gaining more than 300% from its IPO price of $40 at one point.
CoreWeave's IPO came at the end of March 2025, when concerns about tariffs, weakening consumer sentiment, and a potential slowdown in AI spending weighed on the market. The IPO was undersubscribed, and the offering was priced below its target range. Nvidia (NVDA -2.79%), a major customer, bought into the offering, helping to make it happen.
As confidence in the economy has returned, CoreWeave stock has soared. The company is delivering skyrocketing growth with revenue up 206% in the second quarter, showing soaring demand for the AI computing power that it offers. However, CoreWeave is still deeply unprofitable on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis and has high customer concentration, making it risky. Its business model also requires heavy spending on capital expenditures, buying graphics processing units (GPUs) that it essentially rents out as computing power to customers, meaning it has considerable debt and high interest expenses.
It's a risky stock, but its growth rate shows that it has huge potential. It's also a rare pure-play AI stock.
2. Figma
Figma (FIG -1.24%) is one of the newest companies to go public with its IPO at the end of July.
The stock soared initially as Figma has built a strong business around design software with a stable of top customers, strong top-line growth, GAAP profits on the bottom line, and new AI-powered products.
Prior to going public, Figma was in the news for agreeing to be sold to Adobe for $20 billion. However, regulators broke up the deal, claiming that it was anti-competitive.
Though Figma still competes against Adobe, the company has arguably the leading brand in user experience and user interaction (UX/UI) software, and has a bright future in front of it.
3. Circle
Circle Internet Group (CRCL -4.85%) just went public with a blazing-hot IPO. After pricing its offering at $31, the stock opened at $69 on its first trading day and jumped 56% over the next two days.
The demand for Circle's shares indicates strong interest in crypto stocks. There are only a few pure-play crypto stocks on the market, and crypto has had a good year, largely avoiding the volatility that's hit the stock market during the trade war.
Circle issues the stablecoin USDC, the biggest dollar-denominated stablecoin after Tether (USDT -0.05%). It earns money on transaction fees and interest on the reserves it holds to back the stablecoin. It also recently launched Circle Payments Network, which can facilitate cross-border payments in real time.
Circle is profitable, with $155.7 million in net income in 2024 on $1.7 billion in revenue, up 13% from 2023.
4. Omada Health
Another brand-new IPO is Omada Health (OMDA 0.52%), a virtual care company known for its focus on chronic conditions like diabetes.
Omada went public on June 6, raising $150 million. The stock popped on its opening day, gaining 21% from its $19 IPO price.
Combined with the response to the Circle IPO, investor sentiment seems to indicate strong demand for new issues after a long cold spell in IPOs.
Omada's revenue rose 38% to $169.9 million in 2024 and reported a net loss of $47.1 million, which was an improvement from a loss of $67.5 million in 2023.
5. Nebius Group
Nebius Group (NBIS 1.24%), a competitor to CoreWeave, went public last October before its larger rival.
Nebius is also putting up blistering growth. Its revenue is up 625% in the first quarter to $105.1 million, but the company is rapidly losing money like CoreWeave.
Nebius is much smaller than CoreWeave, which topped $1 billion in revenue in its most recent quarter, and its business model is slightly different. Nebius has a broader focus with services like managed databases and machine learning services, while CoreWeave focuses primarily on access to AI computing power through Nvidia GPUs. However, both companies have tremendous growth potential.
IPOs to watch
IPO stocks to watch in 2025
1. Stripe
As the most valuable privately held tech startup in the U.S., digital payments company Stripe may be the most anticipated IPO out there. While the company has not announced plans to go public, Reuters reported that Stripe had taken its first step toward a market debut, tapping a law firm to guide it through the process. The wire service also said the company was planning on a direct listing instead of a traditional IPO since it doesn't need to raise new funds.
Stripe, which provides cloud software that allows businesses to seamlessly process payments, took a valuation cut from $95 billion to $50 billion due to the crash in tech stocks. It was valued at $91.5 billion in a secondary offering in February 2025 that allowed employees to cash out their stock. Still, management continues to say that it aims to go public eventually, though it seems to keep putting off that decision.
2. Shein
Shein could be the biggest IPO of 2025. The Chinese discount e-commerce site known for cheap clothes and similar merchandise filed confidentially to go public in November 2023.
In January 2025, Reuters reported that it was aiming for an IPO by midyear. While it hasn't revealed its financials yet, the company could reportedly be valued at $90 billion. Temu, a similar Chinese discount e-commerce site, has also grown rapidly, showing strong demand for cheap online merchandise and alternatives to Amazon.
Regulatory scrutiny around its supply chain and labor practices seems to have derailed its hopes for an IPO in the U.S. for now, and the company is now looking to go public in Hong Kong.
3. Discord
As of March 2025, media reports indicated that Discord, the messaging app that's popular with gamers, has been in early talks with bankers to go public as soon as late 2025. Discord was valued at $15 billion in its last funding round in 2021.
The company has not confirmed any plans to go public. It now has more than 200 million monthly active users, with the vast majority of them using the app to play games. It makes money through a "freemium" business model, offering enhanced features for paying users.
Related investing topics
How to buy IPO stock
How to buy IPO stock
- Open your brokerage app: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments.
- Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
- Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
- Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
- Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
- Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.
Pros and cons
Pros and cons of investing in IPO stocks
There are a number of pros and cons to investing in IPO stocks. Let's review some of the big ones.
Pros:
- Investing in IPOs can get you exposure to big winners.
- Most top stocks were once IPOs.
- You can get in early on a stock you like.
Cons:
- Most IPOs underperform the market.
- IPOs tend to be more volatile and riskier than the average stock.
- It can take time for an IPO to find equilibrium in the market, and it's hard to know where it will settle.
In general, IPOs offer substantial potential upside and occasionally produce big winners, but most debuts do not perform as well as the S&P 500, whose stocks have proven their mettle on their way to earning membership in the index.
FAQ
IPOs: FAQ
What is an IPO in stocks?
An IPO stands for initial public offering. It refers to a company making its shares available for public ownership and trading. When the stock IPOs, it lists on a stock exchange and begins trading.
Is it a good idea to buy IPO stocks?
IPO stocks tend to be riskier than the broad stock market since these are new issues that investors are still evaluating, and the stocks are searching for their equilibrium point.
IPOs often underperform the market due to the euphoria that surrounds them when they go public, but some IPO stocks go on to be big winners.
What's the best IPO to buy now?
One of the more intriguing IPOs on the market is CoreWeave, an AI-focused cloud infrastructure company. CoreWeave's stock has soared since its debut, and it's likely to remain volatile as it's growing rapidly but still putting up big losses.
How do I invest in IPO stocks?
Investing in IPOs once they've started trading is just like buying any other stock. If you want to buy shares before they start trading, the best thing you can do is contact your brokerage and see if you can subscribe to the IPO allotment.
Should I invest in IPO stocks?
Maybe. It depends upon your level of risk tolerance, investing horizon timeline, whether you're able to maintain realistic expectations about returns, and a few other items.
If you're considering participating in an IPO, you must be aware that they're among the riskier moves you can make as an investor. That's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, getting in on the ground floor before the stock begins trading gives you an opportunity to maximize your return on an individual stock since some stocks never fall back to their IPO price. Alternatively, these stocks may underperform because they have yet to be tested in the stock market, and IPO stocks are often money-losing start-ups to begin with, meaning they're already riskier than a typical blue chip stock.
What companies went public in January 2025?
Dozens of companies went public in 2025. Among the largest ones were Venture Global (NYSE:VG), an oil and gas company, Smithfield Foods (NASDAQ:SFD), a meat processor, and Flowco Holdings (NYSE:FLOC), an oil and gas services company.
How to buy an IPO before it goes public?
Buying an IPO before it goes public is not always easy. You'll need to check with your brokerage on their requirements, then, if you qualify, place an order. If your offer price is high enough and there is enough supply to meet your order, it will get filled.
