By Liz Dunshee
Back in February, we looked at SEC data on small and pre-public companies and noted that IPOs were reemerging as an option after several lean years. The SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis has now released a fresh set of capital formation statistics covering the first half of 2026. The topline is encouraging: More IPOs, dramatically more IPO proceeds and more follow-on capital raised than in the first half of 2025.
However, the data is even more informative when you look beyond the headlines. For example, compared to the prior-year period:
- Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) account for much of the increase in IPO count.
- Fewer corporate issuers completed IPOs, but they raised significantly higher proceeds.
- Public companies conducted more registered follow-on offerings and received more proceeds.
For companies considering an IPO or planning their next financing, the data suggest more active public capital markets – but the opportunities are still not equally open to everyone.
Deal count: SPAC IPOs up, corporate IPOs down
Although the first half numbers are encouraging, they do not show a simple, broad-based increase in the number of companies going public. Instead, they show fewer corporate IPOs than a year earlier, alongside a resurgence in SPAC formation. In looking at corporate issuers versus SPACs:
- SPAC IPOs nearly doubled – from 66 in the first half of 2025 to 118 in the first half of 2026, accounting for 56.7% of IPOs this year.
- Corporate IPOs decreased from 111 to 88 over the same period.
As discussed below, the companies that did complete offerings raised significantly more capital.
Proceeds: Corporate IPOs raised a lot more money
The SEC reports that there were 208 IPOs raising more than $137 billion in the first half of 2026, compared with 180 IPOs raising more than $27 billion in the first half of 2025. That is about a 16% increase in deal count and nearly a 400% increase in proceeds. The underlying IPO statistics show that the proceeds story was especially pronounced in the second quarter.
Corporate IPOs yielded:
- Aggregate proceeds of roughly $115 billion, up from about $16 billion in the first half of 2025.
- Median proceeds of $200 million in Q1 and $279.5 million in Q2 2026, compared with $10 million and $14.6 million in the corresponding 2025 quarters.
This data shows that public markets have been receptive to sizable new issuances. Additionally, although H1 2026 saw the largest IPO in history, which represented more than 60% of the market’s aggregate proceeds, the increase in median proceeds helps show that the shift was broader than a single blockbuster deal. The larger offering sizes are also consistent with a market in which many companies are waiting longer to go public, which was a trend I discussed in this February 2026 CapitalXchange blog.
Follow-ons: More deals, higher proceeds
The broader capital formation picture is also important, as an IPO is only the beginning of a company’s access to public markets. Already-public companies may raise additional capital to fund growth, operations, research and development, or other corporate needs.
According to the SEC’s follow-on registered offering data:
- For deal count, public companies completed 557 follow-on offerings in H1 2026, compared to 505 offerings in the prior year.
- Aggregate proceeds exceeded $111 billion in the first half of 2026, compared to $84 billion in 2025.
Those figures reflect increases of about 10% in offering count and 33% in proceeds, which, alongside the IPO data above, shows that the market is supporting both IPOs and follow-on issuances. This type of market gives companies more financing pathways to consider, even if access and pricing continue to vary based on company circumstances and market conditions.
Industry mix: Different patterns across IPOs and follow-ons
The industry mix also looked different across IPOs and follow-ons. Technology dominated IPO proceeds, although that figure was heavily influenced by the record-setting IPO discussed above. Follow-on activity was more distributed, with business services, healthcare, technology and manufacturing all accounting for meaningful shares of deal count.
The SEC data, which includes SPACS in the denominator for these calculations, shows:
| Industry | IPO count | IPO proceeds | Follow-on count | Follow-on proceeds |
| Technology | 11.1% | 65.6% | 16.9% | 32.8% |
| Manufacturing | 8.7% | 7.1% | 12.9% | 9.5% |
| Business services | 5.8% | 2.5% | 27.8% | 15.7% |
| Healthcare | 4.3% | 1.9% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
What should companies take from the data?
The first half of 2026 gives companies more reason to keep public market optionality on the table, even though it remains difficult to predict whether the conditions that existed during the first half of this year will continue through year-end, and companies are continuing to monitor conditions to find the best market window for capital formation.
For a public company, this means thinking ahead about financing needs, registration statement eligibility and potential market windows rather than waiting until capital is immediately needed. For a late-stage company, it means staying ready enough to move when company performance and market conditions align.
As discussed in this April 2026 interview and this July 2026 CapitalXchange blog, companies should also be aware that they have several paths to the public markets. For example, depending on the company and its circumstances, reverse mergers may be an alternative to traditional IPOs, and at-the-market offerings or offerings of convertible securities may be helpful capital-raising methods for companies that are already public. The SEC is continuing to consider ways to modernize IPOs and other ways to access capital, which I last wrote about in this September 2026 CapitalXchange blog.
Cooley has been advising on many IPOs, SPACs, follow-ons, and reverse mergers – and right now, we’re seeing activity for some deal structures accelerate compared to the first half of the year, while others remain challenging. If you have questions about IPO readiness, go-public or capital raising alternatives, or public company issues, please contact the Cooley capital markets team or visit the Cooley capital markets practice page. These resources may also be a helpful starting point:
