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First, some general notes on the state of the IPO market in the third quarter, then a quick detail of which companies we counted in our own IPO mix (Crunchbase News only counts certain companies in our lists), and also a quick note on profits and pops.

I promise to be brief if you promise to laugh at my bad jokes. Let’s go!

IPO Market

just released its United States third-quarter IPO report (). The report contains a few metrics we should keep in mind.

In the third quarter, 52 U.S.-listed IPOs raised $11.2 billion. That was the lowest IPO dollars-raised tally of the year, but it was a higher figure in dollar terms than any quarter before the start of 2018 going back into 2015.

The 52 IPO figure is tied for the third-highest tally in the last few years, but is smaller, for example, than the 60 U.S.-listed IPOs that took place in the second quarter, according to Renaissance.

So the IPO market was healthy by historical standards in the third quarter, but it was not a record-setting period due to how much healthier the IPO climate is this year compared to the preceding few.

But that data relates to all IPOs. What about the US-listed tech debuts from the third quarter?

Tech IPOs

We’re keeping a long list of every technology IPO in the United States this year here.

Keep in mind that a company can be based anywhere and make our list, provided that it goes public here. We may change up our definitions, but here’s who we have scribbled down:

More here on each, but it’s a list that is notable for a few reasons.

First, there are a number of international players in the mix: Pinduoduo (China), Endava (UK), Cango (China), Opera (Norway), CooTek (China), Farfetch (UK), LAIX (China), and Viomi (China). That’s 57 percent of the U.S.-listed tech IPOs that we tracked.

Now, we may have missed one, or we may currently exclude a firm that you think should have made the cut (let us know). But it’s still startling to think that so much of the U.S. tech IPO market isn’t made up of domestic companies. It’s true that U.S.-based unicorns are doing well in exit terms compared to the global unicorn cohort,  but there is still a huge amount of illiquidity to be shaken loose.

That’s why the percent of tech companies going public domestically being more than half foreign is worrying. The IPO window is open, yet many American unicorns (let alone richly-valued startups that are worth less than $1 billion) aren’t too close to getting through.

Even more, many companies that are making it through the IPO window are being richly rewarded for passing marks at best.

Pop V. Profit

You don’t have to make money to do well in an IPO at the moment. That bodes well for private unicorns, the majority of which don’t make money.

Indeed, something that we saw this quarter was that profits are completely optional to doing very well out-of-the-gate. Here are a few examples:

• SurveyMonkey doesn’t make money, but it .
• Farfetch loses money, but it
• Pinduoduo doesn’t isn’t profitable, but it .

And on and on. Consider it evidence that markets are still valuing growth (even sluggish growth!) more than profits. That’s a pretty fact for tech companies that need to list. We’ll see if most get out before the window slams shut.

China-based priced its IPO at $9.50 per share . That is on the lower end of the firm’s $9 to $11 per-share price range.

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The company sold an expected 11 million shares, implying a raise of $104.5 million not inclusive of a greenshoe offering of 1.65 million shares (per the company’s ). If X Financial’s underwriters exercise those shares, the full IPO raise would reach $120.2 million.

That final figure is far under the firm’s original hopes to raise $250 million through its IPO (the $250 million figure can be found in the firm’s filings, and in ). As such, the IPO can be viewed as a partial disappointment, at least as a fundraising mechanism.

X Financial is a that has grown quickly in recent years while posting profits. The firm is worth around $2.9 billion at its IPO price.

Its shares will begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “XYF.”

Why This Matters For Startups

X Financial’s IPO brings another sliver of liquidity to a bloated global startup ecosystem that has shunned the public markets in recent years. For startups, therefore, X Financial going public lessens collective pressure to provide investor liquidity.

But even more, X makes it plain how open the domestic public markets are today. Yes, the firm had to price in the lower tiers of its range, but a company that I suspect effectively zero Americans know about is going public today worth billions. Hell, even Crunchbase doesn’t have investors on file for the firm.

If you are an American startup you have as open a shot at an IPO now as you probably will for years. Especially if the markets hiccough.

Finally, I’d would argue that X’s profitability helped make it an attractive offering. But , another recent Chinese IPO, was unprofitable as hell when it went public and had far less operating history than X. So, who knows. What we do know is that investors are still hungry for tech shares.

Next up: Eventbrite and Farfetch.

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That didn’t last. Tesla-challenger NIO has been on a tear since, climbing from its IPO price of $6.26 per share to a staggering $12.10 at the time of writing. That’s nearly a doubling in less than a week of trading.

Shares of NIO spiked around 75 percent yesterday, and today kept running afoul of volatility rules :

Shares of Nio Inc. are down 6% in volatile Friday morning trading. The stock was up as much as 19% and down as much as 21%. Trading was halted for volatility twice since the open.

That’s pretty amazing. What the hell is going on?

NIO’s IPO was a risky bet. The company had little history of revenue generation and lots to prove when it comes to manufacturing, marketing, and support. To see the company IPO at all was a testament to market bullishness regarding transportation companies and high-growth tech shares.

But for NIO, forced to price a single penny above the bottom of its range, to effectively double during its first week of trading is simply odd. We’ll find out more in time, of course, but something’s going on. CNN that other Chinese companies that went public on American exchanges had a good day yesterday as well, but the connection isn’t yet clear.

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Raising $1.0 billion in its public debut, NIO has now raised around $3.5 billion including .

NIO’s slow opening trades were presaged by the company’s IPO pricing process. The company priced its IPO at $6.26 per share, the low end of its proposed range. NIO opened at $6.00 and has dipped under $5.70 before recovering. NIO shares are worth $6.00 once again as of the time of writing.

Per , NIO sold 160 million shares in its debut. The company’s underwriters have the option by pick up another 24 million shares if they wish. If NIO’s underwriters do exercise that option, the company could raise an additional $150.24 million.

NIO may need the money. It has an extremely limited operating history as a revenue-generating entity, making its ramp to profitability completely opaque; how much runway it will need to reach financial stability is not clear.

Regardless, a company with effectively no revenue managed to raise $1 billion today, so if you hear any codswallop from your local unicorn about the market not being ready for its IPO, just giggle at them.

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The company will begin trading tomorrow morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NIO.”

NIO has yet to refile with the SEC, thus giving us final share counts. However, the company had previously indicated that it will sell 184 million shares at the most, inclusive of the underwriter’s option. At that count, the firm will raise $1.15 billion for its business.

The Shanghai-based automotive upstart  while private, including money from Sequoia China, Baidu, and Tencent, giving it a mostly Chinese capital base with an American twist.

As Crunchbase News reported when NIO initially filed to go public, the firm’s history as a business is shockingly short. The Tesla-competitor has only sold a handful of vehicles, meaning that for most of its operating history it has only lost money. As such, it’s difficult for investors to parse the firm’s trajectory.

But its immature business didn’t hamper NIO from going public, raising over a billion in the process. What the company’s impending debut does tell us, therefore, is that the IPO window is still quite open. That’s good news for unicorns at home and abroad.

After all, even the improved 2018 IPO cadence won’t manage to get more than a fraction of the unicorn cohort liquid.