As EU venture capital soars, will the region hold onto future IPOs?

Shares of American cybersecurity unicorn SentinelOne began to trade yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. The former startup had raised nearly $700 million before its IPO. And it priced its public debut above a raised price interval. But even its higher-than-anticipated valuation didn’t stop shares of the company from closing around 20% higher.

The SentinelOne IPO is a single data point, but one that fits into a quarters-long trend of high-growth technology companies attracting strong — perhaps exuberant — valuations on American exchanges. The notion that America is a good place to go public is not news; even Chinese tech companies facing what could be called a valuation gap are still pursuing listings in the United States.

But not every technology startup grows up planning, or even dreaming of an American IPO. Many European companies will wind up listing on their native exchanges.

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In the wake of the busy 2021 IPO cycle, The Exchange wanted to better understand why some tech companies choose to list in Europe over the United States.

The question is pertinent thanks to rising venture capital activity on the continent. The first quarter of 2021 saw record investment in the region, to the tune of $21.4 billion, according to Crunchbase News. Early data looking at European venture capital activity in the first half of 2021 is looking similarly bullish. More VC activity likely implies more breakout startups, which in turn should lead to more startup exits, some of which will be public offerings.