Tech IPOs Want to Get Ahead of Trump

A healthy market for initial public offerings needs two things: companies that are ready and willing to go public and investors looking to buy the new shares. Even though Silicon Valley reacted to Donald Trump’s election with visceral dread for a host of civil liberties reasons, the tech companies that had been planning IPOs have billions of reasons to keep things moving as he settles into the presidency.

Following a slow IPO market throughout 2016—the slowest since the recession—the backlog of companies that will be ready to go public next year is growing. Snapchat, which recently renamed itself Snap, has filed confidentially for an IPO of as much as $4 billion early next year, say three people familiar with the matter. Smaller private companies such as meal-kit deliverer Blue Apron have started interviewing banks, while companies including cloud-software maker MuleSoft have appointed firms to help it price public offerings, according to two people familiar with those arrangements.