The Securities and Exchange Commission’s next meeting of the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory (“SBCFA”) Committee convenes April 28, 2026, to explore ways to encourage more companies to go public. The SBCFA Committee will hear from members on the state of the IPO market while considering the existing regulatory framework and how IPO activity and market shifts are impacting decisions by companies, particularly small cap companies, to go public. The meeting will continue with a presentation on the IPO market, trends, and other factors.
According to Wolters Kluwer, companies raised over $41 billion in IPO proceeds in 2025, surpassing the almost $30 billion raised in 2024. IPOs raised over $9.6 billion in proceeds in the first quarter of 2026, an almost 15% increase from the first quarter of 2025. As seen in the graphic below, companies in the life sciences and healthcare, financial services, and industrials sectors lead the market in IPO proceeds.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins has championed a “Make IPOs Great Again” initiative, pledging to reduce regulatory friction and simplify listing requirements to reverse the long-term decline in the number of U.S. public companies. Central to Chair Atkins’ effort is a focus on smaller companies, arguing that disclosure requirements should be calibrated to a company’s size and maturity; the same reporting burdens should not be imposed on a $250 million market cap company as on one 100 times its size. Companies with a market cap of under $250 million accounted for 2.4% of all IPO proceeds in FY 2025 and less than 1% of all IPO proceeds in Q1 2026.
The upcoming SBCFA Committee meeting provides an opportunity to examine how these regulatory priorities may translate into practical steps for smaller companies considering a public listing. The SBCFA Committee meeting is open to the public and streamed live on SEC.gov. See the full agenda for the meeting, and visit the committee webpage.
