Monthly IPO Roundup: March 2026 — February's Biggest Listings

February 2026 was the busiest IPO month in four years. Sixteen traditional IPOs priced, more than in any other month of Q1 2026, per PwC's US Capital Markets Watch. The week of February 3 alone saw seven listings, the most in a single week since 2022. There was no dominant consumer brand IPO this month. Instead, February demonstrated something rarer, sustained, broad institutional appetite across sectors simultaneously.

Forgent Power Solutions raised $1.5 billion on February 5, the largest deal of the month and the most successful industrial listing in years, rising 7.4% on its first day. Five biotech companies raised a combined $1.4 billion, capped by Generate Biomedicines' $400 million deal on February 26. PayPay, SoftBank's Japanese QR-code payment app, filed its S-1 publicly on February 12 and was preparing for a March listing.

This is our March 2026 edition of the monthly IPO roundup. For January's deals — Aktis Oncology, Venture Global, and York Space — see Monthly IPO Roundup: February 2026.

The Headline Deal: Forgent Power Solutions Raises $1.5 Billion

Forgent Power Solutions (NYSE: FPS) priced on February 5, 2026, selling 39.4 million Class A shares at $27 per share — the midpoint of its marketed range — raising $1.5 billion. Shares closed at $29 on the first day, a 7.4% gain from the offer price.

Forgent designs and manufactures electrical distribution equipment for data centres, the power grid, and energy-intensive industrial facilities. The company was assembled by private equity through a series of acquisitions in 2023 and 2024, creating what the Minneapolis Star Tribune described as a "new Twin Cities company" that set a Minnesota IPO record. It was headquartered in Dayton, Minnesota.

At pricing, Renaissance Capital's analysis valued Forgent at 24x 2026 EBITDA, two turns above the median of its peer group of larger industrial electrical manufacturers. Investors paid the premium because data centre power infrastructure is the most capital-intensive build-out of the 2020s. Every major AI model requires compute. Compute requires electricity. Electricity requires distribution equipment. Forgent's backlog had doubled in the 12 months before its IPO.

What it means for brand and industry ownership: Forgent is not a consumer brand. But its strong IPO performance and the premium valuation investors paid tells you where institutional capital is flowing. Companies in the supply chain of AI infrastructure commanded the highest valuations in February 2026, not the AI companies themselves.

February's Biotech Wave: Five IPOs, $1.4 Billion

February was, according to BioPharma Dive, the best month for biotech IPOs since 2021. Five biotechs priced, raising a combined $1.39 billion. This followed Aktis Oncology's January breakout of $318 million and confirmed that Aktis had genuinely reopened the biotech IPO window rather than being a one-off.

Generate Biomedicines: The Month's Biggest Biotech Deal

Generate Biomedicines (NASDAQ: GENB) priced on February 26, 2026, selling 25 million shares at $16 per share to raise $400 million. At pricing, Generate's market capitalisation was approximately $2.2 billion. It was the largest biotech IPO of 2026 to date.

Generate is an AI drug discovery company backed by Flagship Pioneering, the same Cambridge, Massachusetts venture incubator that created Moderna. The company uses generative AI to design proteins from scratch, then develops those designed proteins as drug candidates. Its pipeline covers multiple disease areas at clinical stage.

The Pharmaceutical Technology trade press described Generate's raise as signalling renewed investor appetite for drug developers making the public jump. Five biotechs in a single month, nearly matching the full-year 2025 biotech IPO count of seven, marked a structural shift in risk appetite.

What it means for brand and industry ownership: Generate is not a consumer brand. But AI drug discovery companies like Generate are changing who owns pharmaceutical intellectual property. AI-designed drugs, if they reach market, will belong to companies that may not have existed five years ago. Ownership of the molecules that become branded medicines shifts as these companies go public.

Other February 2026 Biotech IPOs

• Rank One Computing (NASDAQ: ROC) — facial recognition software provider, February 20, raised $24 million, upsized and priced at the top of range. Serves law enforcement and security sectors.
• Additional smaller biotech issuers priced through the month, each in the $50–$150 million range per Renaissance Capital's weekly recaps.

PayPay Files for US IPO: SoftBank's Japan Payments App Heads to Nasdaq

On February 12, 2026, SoftBank Group's PayPay Corporation filed publicly for a US Nasdaq IPO — in what analysts described as a potential record listing for a Japanese company on a US exchange.

PayPay is Japan's dominant QR-code payment application, serving approximately 67 million registered users. The company processes trillions of yen in annual transaction volume. SoftBank created and backed PayPay starting in 2018, and the app grew rapidly through aggressive cashback promotions. It became the default digital payment method at millions of Japanese retailers, convenience stores, and restaurants.

The February 12 filing set up a March listing timeline. Full details in Monthly IPO Roundup: April 2026. PayPay priced on March 12, raising $879.8 million at $16 per ADR, with the stock rising 14% to $18.16 on its first day of trading, the biggest US listing by a Japanese company.

For brand and industry ownership: PayPay is a major brand in Japan's digital payments ecosystem. Its US listing transfers partial ownership from SoftBank Vision Fund II to US public shareholders. It is also a template. Japanese tech companies have been reluctant to pursue US listings, preferring Tokyo's Tokyo Stock Exchange. PayPay's Nasdaq listing, if successful, could encourage others.

Liftoff Mobile: The Withdraw-and-Refile

Blackstone-backed mobile advertising technology company Liftoff Mobile withdrew its US IPO plan in early February 2026 after market volatility and a software-sector sell-off dented investor appetite. Within hours of the withdrawal, Liftoff confidentially refiled via the JOBS Act process — signalling that the IPO plan remained live, with a new timeline targeting April or later once market conditions stabilised.

Liftoff is an AI-powered demand-side and supply-side platform for mobile app advertising, used by thousands of app developers and brands to acquire users on mobile devices. Its primary revenue model is performance advertising, charging on installs and engagement events rather than clicks. The company's Cortex neural network engine sits at the core of its product.

The withdraw-and-refile was a reasonable tactical move: February's volatility, driven by AI stock corrections and geopolitical uncertainty, made institutional pricing conversations difficult. Liftoff chose to wait rather than price at a discount.

Clear Street's IPO Withdrawal

Clear Street, a Wall Street brokerage and clearing firm founded in 2018, formally withdrew its US IPO filing in February 2026, a week after trimming its targeted price range. The pullback reflected two things: weak demand for fintech-adjacent deals amid the software sell-off, and investor concerns about revenue concentration in Clear Street's business model.

The withdrawal was the most high-profile failed deal of the month. Clear Street had been targeting a multibillion-dollar valuation for a company that provided prime brokerage and clearing services to hedge funds and traders.

February 2026 IPO Summary Table

Source: Renaissance Capital, BioPharma Dive, Bloomberg, company press releases. Status as of February 28, 2026.

The Broader Picture: February as a Turning Point

PwC's Q1 2026 US Capital Markets Watch confirmed that February led Q1 with 16 deals, the most active IPO month since early 2022. The report noted that 2026 IPOs were outperforming the broader market on average, trading down only 1% versus a roughly 5% S&P 500 decline through March 31.

The February biotech surge was the clearest signal. Seven biotechs IPO'd in the entirety of 2025. Five priced in February 2026 alone. This was not a fluke. Institutional biotech investors had capital to deploy, Aktis's January success had confirmed the window was real, and Generate's AI drug discovery narrative attracted generalist technology investors who had been waiting for biotech exposure.

For consumer brand M&A context, the main focus of our WhoBrands research, the February IPO environment mattered because it showed institutional capital was available, risk appetite was recovering, and the 2026 deal environment would be constructive for larger transactions. That manifested in March with the McCormick and Unilever food combination announcement of $45 billion and the Henkel and Olaplex deal of $1.4 billion.

Deals to Watch in March 2026

PayPay Corp IPO. SoftBank's Japan payments app, having filed February 12, was targeting a March Nasdaq listing. The deal was expected to raise $600 to $900 million.

Additional biotech pipeline. Following February's wave, analysts counted more than a dozen biotechs with active S-1 filings or confidential submissions as of March 1.

McCormick and Unilever food deal. Not an IPO, but announced March 31 and the biggest brand ownership story of Q1. See Monthly M&A Roundup: April 2026.

FAQ

What was the biggest IPO of February 2026?

Forgent Power Solutions raised $1.5 billion on February 5 — the largest single deal of the month. Generate Biomedicines' $400 million biotech deal on February 26 was the second largest, and the most significant in terms of sector signalling.

Why were there so many biotech IPOs in February 2026?

Aktis Oncology's January 2026 IPO — which raised double its target with Eli Lilly's direct participation — reopened the biotech IPO window that had been effectively closed through most of 2024 and 2025. Institutional biotech investors had queued capital waiting for the right market signal. February gave them five opportunities at once.

Did any major consumer brands go public in February 2026?

No major consumer brand IPOs priced in February 2026. The month was dominated by industrials (Forgent), biotech (Generate, and others), and software. The most anticipated consumer-facing deals — Discord, Plaid, Shein — remained in their pre-filing or confidential stages.

Related Reading

• Monthly IPO Roundup: February 2026
• Monthly IPO Roundup: April 2026
• Monthly M&A Roundup: April 2026
• Biggest Brand Deals of Q1 2026

Sources

1. Bloomberg: Forgent Power Shares Advance 7.4% After $1.5 Billion IPO — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-05/power-equipment-maker-forgent-shares-fall-after-1-5-billion-ipo 2. Star Tribune: Forgent Sets Minnesota IPO Record Raising $1.5B — https://www.startribune.com/the-new-twin-cities-company-that-set-a-minnesota-record-with-15b-ipo/601579303 3. BioPharma Dive: Generate Caps a Strong Month for Biotech IPOs with $400M Offering — https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/generate-biomedicines-ipo-price-biotech-ai-flagship-startup/813130/ 4. Reuters: Drug Developer Generate Biomedicines Raises $400M in US IPO — https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/drug-developer-generate-biomedicines-raises-400-million-us-ipo-2026-02-27/ 5. American Banker: Japanese Payments Fintech PayPay Files US IPO — https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/japanese-app-paypay-announces-us-ipo-and-visa-partnership 6. Reuters: Blackstone-backed Liftoff Files US IPO — https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/blackstone-backed-liftoff-files-us-ipo-2026-04-17/ 7. PwC US Capital Markets Watch Q1 2026 — https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/deals/us-capital-markets-watch.html 8. Renaissance Capital: Q1 2026 US IPO Market Review — https://www.renaissancecapital.com/IPO-Center/News/117887/Renaissance-Capitals-1Q-2026-US-IPO-Market-Review

All brand ownership and IPO data verified through WhoBrands.com research methodology. Last updated: March 1, 2026.