There Are No Impending Tech IPOs (Boo)

Morning Report: As the current IPO calendar looks dry, here’s hoping that Spotify publicly files soon.

After a lacking few years, 2017 brought with it some long-awaited IPOs, like Snap, some unsurprising enterprise offerings, like MuleSoft and Okta, and some surprise winners, like Stitch Fix.

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So far the only thing that 2018 has on its plate regarding IPOs is a privately-filed Spotify offering from December that likely won’t be an IPO at all; Spotify is broadly expected to be planning a less-conventional direct listing.

A quick scan of Nasdaq’s upcoming IPO list (for itself and the NYSE) is barren of any technology shops in January. The closest thing is an enormous offering from ADT, the home security company.

(As a small programming note, Crunchbase News tracks US-listed offerings from companies that are either obviously technology firms (software) or have strong technology roots and venture backing (Blue Apron). Biotech is not counted.)

Perhaps 2018 will, like 2017, have a slow start that eventually hits stride. But so far with only one rumored IPO and not much else on the docket, it’s likely that we’ll be stuck with crypto headlines for some time yet.

Put more simply: If 2018 is going to be the year of the unicorn IPO it had better get cracking.

From The Crunchbase Daily:

Global VC spending rose in 2017 but dipped in Q4

Global venture investment rose in 2017 from year-ago levels in both dollar volume and deal counts, according to an analysis of Crunchbase data. However, funding levels dipped some in the fourth quarter, led by a decline in seed-stage deals. In terms of exits, 2017 was a surprisingly strong year for technology IPOs, but M&A activity for venture-backed startups was the weakest it’s been in years.

Practice Fusion sells to Allscripts

Practice Fusion, a twelve-year-old electronic medical records company backed by a host of big-name venture firms, has sold to publicly traded Allscripts for $100 million in cash. The deal follows several quarters of declining fortunes for San Francisco-based Practice Fusion, which was on track for a blockbuster IPO a few years ago after raising more than $150 million in venture funding.

Salesforce acquires Attic Labs

Salesforce is acquiring Attic Labs, developer of a decentralized database used in collaborative projects, for an undisclosed sum. San Francisco-based Attic previously raised $8 million in venture funding.

Alkami raises $70 million for banking software

Alkami Technology, a provider of digital banking software to banks and credit unions, has raised $70 million in a Series D round led by General Atlantic. With the latest funding, the nine-year-old, Plano, Texas-based company has raised $117 million to date.