Last week's IPO environment was very quiet. Ant Financial Services Group, the fintech company that operates the Chinese transaction payment service Alipay, noted plans for another funding round. Local and foreign investors appear to be acquiring additional equity ahead of a potential IPO, which could happen as early as the second half of 2018. 

Swedish music streaming service Spotify discretely filed for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange last month, with plans to begin trading before the end of 2018’s first quarter. The direct listing method is different than traditional initial public offering procedures, which may involve road shows and cost considerably more. Instead, Spotify’s current investors could begin trading shares on the open market without a formal offering or predetermined price – a process that may encourage other tech companies to do the same.