The latest Crunchbase report carries a gloomy headline: "A Hard Year For Software IPOs." But the underlying data point in the opposite direction for venture-backed technology companies as a whole. According to Crunchbase, U.S. venture-backed tech companies have secured around $90 billion in domestic public offerings so far this year.
That total is already the second-highest annual tally Crunchbase has recorded, and the year is not finished. The apparent contradiction between a software IPO slump and a near-record aggregate suggests the pain is concentrated in one slice of the market while other listings keep the overall numbers elevated.
With only this single source at hand, there is no independent counterpoint to Crunchbase's figures. The practical takeaway, at least for now, is that "hard year" depends heavily on which part of the IPO market you measure.