(Flickr photo via Rennett Stowe)

We’ve finally seen a bit of activity on the IPO front in Seattle, with both Impinj and Zillow.com filing for public offerings late last month. As it turns out, they are not alone. The first quarter ended with 125 companies in the IPO pipeline, a significant uptick compared to the 80 companies registered for the same period last year, according to a report from Ernst & Young.

Technology continues to lead the way, with 27 companies in the pipeline and 14 new registrations.

Of course, the IPO market can be rather fickle. So, there’s certainly no guarantee that those companies will actually make it into the public markets or perform well if they do get there. In the case of Impinj and Zillow, both companies are relatively small with about $30 million in annual revenue.

California is the most active state with 25 companies in registration, followed by Texas (15 companies) and Connecticut and Florida (six companies). According to the Ernst & Young report,  a surge in private equity-backed deals and companies from China is helping to boost the pipeline.

Fifteen percent of the companies in the pipeline are from from foreign countries, including Canada’s Lone Pine Resources and China’s Home Loan Servicing Solutions.

The three biggest proposed IPOs — HCA Holdings, Kinder Morgan and Nielsen Holdings — are all backed by private equity firms and are seeking $1.9 billion or more in the public markets.

Source: Ernst & Young U.S. IPO Pipeline study
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