Last night on the Atlas Virtual Capital group in Second Life, there was a lively discussion about various IPOs in the Second Life stock markets. What leads to a successful IPO? What role should the exchange take, and many other topics. I thought this would be a worthwhile subject to explore a little bit.

As I write this, there are fourteen companies that have IPOs going on in Second Life, a fifteenth just completed its IPO. Over the past week, at least L$ 1.2 million have been invested in IPOs. So, what do we know about these companies and the exchanges they are listed on?

ACE has four companies in IPO, including KAU, the company whose IPO just closed. Nearly L$ 800,000 of the money invested into IPOs were done on ACE. The biggest was WJUV Radio, which accounted for nearly 60% of the IPO shares bought. KAU brought in L$ 200,000, which accounted for about 25% of ACE’s IPO volume.

The second largest player in the IPO market over the past week was VSTEX. Over L$ 250,000 was invested in IPOs through VSTEX. BNF is the company that raised the most on VSTEX, bringing in over L$ 83,000.

The World Stock Exchange (WSE) has three companies in IPO right now. Between them, they’ve raised just under L$ 140,000. The vast majority of it coming for Fund Second Life (FSL) which raised over L$ 100,000 over the past week.

The International Stock Exchange (ISE) has only one IPO, VLADA. Over the past week, they brought in around L$ 42,000.

The Second Life Capital Exchange (SLCapEx) does not currently have any IPOs underway.

Beyond all of this, there are various private placements which take place, as well as people making deposits in banks, and so on. Clearly, financial services are an important sector of the Second Life economy. However, there is a lot more that needs to be understood about these companies, which I hope to explore over the coming days.