Venture Capital-Backed Tech Firm Exits To Watch In 2021

Venture Capital-Backed Tech Firm Exits To Watch In 2021

By Troy Hooper

The U.S. technology sector saw no shortage of blockbuster exits in 2020.

Airbnb, DoorDash and Snowflake all went public, accounting for three of the 10 largest U.S. technology initial public offerings of all time while Palantir and Asana listed their shares on the New York Stock Exchange directly.

Other venture-backed businesses like sports gambling site DraftKings and a parade of autonomous vehicle technology companies led by Luminar and Velodyne Lidar merged with special purpose acquisition companies, known as SPACs.

Yet others, including Intouch Health, Optimizely and TrueValue Labs from Mergermarket's list last year, sold to strategic buyers.



With so many ways for startups to exit the private markets, what might 2021 bring? Several companies already have filed IPO registrations either confidentially or publicly, including Bumble, Coinbase, Poshmark, Roblox and UIPath. 



What other venture-backed startups are likely to go public and which might sell to someone else in 2021? Here, Mergermarket sets out our top picks.

Betterment



Wealth management startups like Betterment may become M&A targets amid ongoing consolidation by industry giants, Mergermarket reported last year. In December 2020, Betterment founder Jon Stein stepped down as CEO to make way for Sarah Levy, a former ViacomCBS executive, to lead it into its next phase of growth, which could include its transition from a private company to a public