The 2020 calendar year will long be remembered as an annus horribilis for most, except for a handful of technology companies that reaped the rewards of a global shift to remote work with successful initial public offerings (IPOs).

US companies alone raised a record$435 billion in stock sales in 2020, with more than a quarter of that figure coming from IPOs - far outstripping 2014's mark of$279 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The vast majority of those new listings defined themselves as technology companies.

Cloud-based software firms like Zoom, Snowflake, Asana, Airbnb, and Palantir all performed particularly well, and continue to see their stock price flourish as remote work and e-commerce continue to be the norm for many in 2021.

The question now is whether this trend will until the end of the year. There were a host of companies eying a debut in 2021 totake advantage of favorable conditions. But, as with all market debuts, timing matters, with a number of industry analysts worried at the beginning of 2021 about a bubble.

Here are the biggest technology IPOs of the year so far.

Samsara

Internet of things (IoT) company Samsara saw a strong IPO on Dec. 15. After pricing its shares at the top end of its range at$23, share prices immediately rose by 7% to$24.90, valuing the company at$12 billion.

Based in San Francisco, Samsara focuses on the software and hardware required for IoT connected vehicles and industrial assets, giving customers a platform to collect and analyze that data.

HashiCorp

Open-source software company HashiCorp enjoyed a solid public debut on Dec. 9, where its stock debuted on the Nasdaq above expectations at$80 a share and rose by as much as 10% on the first day of trading. It closed the day at$85, valuing the company at$14 billion.

Founded in 2012 by college friends Mitchell Hashimoto and Armon Dadgar, HashiCorp is best known for its various open-source software products, such as the hugely popular infrastructure-as-code tool Terraform, password-management tool Vault and container-management tool Nomad. The company is based in San Francisco, but is "remote-first" for its 1,500 employees. 

Braze

Marketing software company Braze saw its shares rise by as much as 44% during a brisk first day of trading on the Nasdaq in November. Having initially priced its IPO at$65, shares rose to$93, valuing the company at$8.4 billion.

The New York-based company specializes in customer engagement data, helping brands such as HBO Max, Sephora, and Grubhub better understand their customers and boost their online marketing efforts.

Backblaze

Cloud data and backup specialist Backblaze wasn't the splashiest tech IPO of the year when it debuted on the Nasdaq on Nov. 11, where it raised a modest$100 million. Shares did climb by as much as 24% on the first day of trading, however, valuing the company at$650 million.

Expensify

Expense management software company Expensify debuted on the Nasdaq in November, with shares listing at$27, valuing the company at$2.2 billion. (They rose by as much as 45% to$39 a share on its first day of trading.) Founded in 2008 in Portland, OR, the fintech company specializes in receipt tracking and expense management software for individuals and businesses.

Udemy

Online education company Udemy endured a tough market debut at the end of October, where its shares quickly dipped below its listing price of$29, closing the first day of trading down at$27, valuing the San Francisco-based company at$3.7 billion.

GlobalFoundries

Chipmaker GlobalFoundries sold 55 million shares on its Oct. 28 Nasdaq debut at$47 each, the top end of its expected range of$42 to$47. The price fluctuated during the first day of trading, dropping by as much as 5.3% before rebounding to end the day down 1.3%. That put the company's value at around$25 billion. It was the third biggest technology IPO of the year to date, trailing only the South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang and Chinese ride-hailing company DiDi.

Based in New York, the chip manufacturer was born out of the manufacturing arm of chip giant AMD in 2009, and is owned by Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates.

Informatica

Data management specialist Informatica went public for the second time on Oct.28, with the stock opening at$29 per share - the bottom of its expected range of$29 to$32. That put the company's value at$7.9 billion. Shares fell by as much as 5% during its first day of trading, before rebounding to settle near its listing price of$29.

Founded in 1993, the California-based company went public for the first time in 1999, before going private again in 2015 to focus on cloud data management and a subscription-based consumption model.

GitLab

Developer collaboration platform GitLab saw a strong IPO in October. Shares, initially priced at$77 on the Nasdaq,  jumped by as much as 35% on the first day of trading to$104. That put the company's value at just short of$15 billion.

Broadly speaking, the GitHub competitor started life by focusing on an open source private code repository - as opposed to the Microsoft-owned GitHub, which is by far the most popular place for public repositories. GitLab then extended into the entire software development lifecycle, from source code management to deployment, security and monitoring, through what it calls the Devops Platform. There are more subtle differences between the platforms, as explained by Hacktivist.

Amplitude

Analytics software company Amplitude debuted on the Nasdaq through a direct listing in September - meaning no new shares were sold - following the lead of collaboration software maker Asana last year. (Both share a major investor: Benchmark Capital.)
Shares in the San Francisco-based company opened at$50 and rose by 9% to close at$54.80, valuing the company at about$7 billion. Amplitude specializes in product analytics, which helps businesses track visitor behavior to their digital products so that they can be measured and optimized. At the time of its IPO, Amplitude counted companies like Ford, Walmart and Atlassian as customers.

Toast

Toast, which provides various software products to restaurant owners, including payments processing, successfully floated on the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 22 at$40 per share, well above its expected range of$34 to$36, valuing the company at$20 billion. Shares continued to rise by as much as 56% on its first day of trading, with an implied valuation of$31 billion.

The Boston, MA-based company, which currently only serves US-based customers, had to ride out a tough pandemic, where it slashed employee numbers and saw transaction volumes plummet.

Freshworks

Enterprise software maker Freshworks saw a strong IPO on Sept. 22, with shares opening at$43.50, 21% above expectations, valuing the company at$12 billion. Prior to trading on the Nasdaq, the company had already upped its initial stock price to$36, above its expected range of$32 to$34.

Founded in India and now based in San Mateo, CA, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firm competes with Salesforce, Zoho, and other smaller players in the CRM, HR, marketing, and IT service management space. It primarily counts smaller businesses as customers, which at the time of its IPO included Bridgestone, Blue Nile, and UK broadcaster ITV.

Thoughtworks

Software consultancy Thoughtworks had a strong IPO in September, when shares rose 24% on its Nasdaq debut. The stock opened at$26, well above its expected range of$18 to$20, valuing the company at nearly$9 billion.

Founded in Chicago in 1993, Thoughtworks was a contributor to the growing popularity of agile methodologies in software development thanks to employees like Martin Fowler and Jim Highsmith. It counts companies such as Kroger, Daimler, and PayPal as customers.

ForgeRock

Identity software maker ForgeRock had a solid debut when it listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 16, with shares rising by as much as 46%.

The San Francisco-based company saw its shares list at$25, which was above its expected range of$21 to $24, before closing at$36.50. That places the company's value at just shy of$3 billion.

Couchbase

NoSQL database specialist Couchbase saw its stock price jump by as much as 39% on its July 22 market debut, valuing the company at more than$1 billion. Initially priced at$24 a share on the Nasdaq exchange, stock in the company jumped to$33.25 a share on its first day of trading, up 38.5%, before settling closer to$30 at the end of the day.

Couchbase provides managed NoSQL database services and competes with the likes of Oracle and MongoDB, which had its own blockbuster IPO in 2017 and now boasts a market cap value of$23 billion.

Wise

UK fintech success story Wise floated on the London Stock Exchange on July 7 as a direct listing -meaning no new shares were sold - at a starting price of