There were 407 initial public offerings in U.S. markets between January 1, 2021, and March 31, 2021; groundbreaking for any quarter since at least 2000. Together, these 407 IPOs raised over $134.6 billion – an increase of over $124 billion from the same period last year and an increase of over $69 billion from last quarter. Similar to last quarter, this unprecedented IPO activity was primarily driven by blank check IPOs, which comprised 73.2% of the IPO market this quarter.

In this article, Audit Analytics examines the stats surrounding the rise in initial public offering activity surrounding U.S. markets in Q1 2021.