Did You Happen to Notice that the VC-Backed IPO Market Is Kicking Major Butt?

While we’ve been blathering about Kleiner Perkins’ new sFund, frothy valuations and all things social, many of us failed to notice a stunning occurrence in October: The VC-backed IPO market surged back with a vengeance.

No fewer than 12 VC-backed companies went public in October, raising in excess of $1.2 billion (click on table below). That is the largest amount raised since November 2007, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher of this blog).

The momentum has continued this month, with seven VC-backed companies collectively raising just under $700 million as of yesterday.

The “new” development that made October such a big month was a batch of offerings from China. Of the dozen VC-backed companies that went public on U.S. exchanges, seven are based in China and Hong Kong.

In fact, the biggest VC return came from China-based Mecox Lane, an online retailer. Sequoia Capital led a $79.91 million round in Mecox in February 2008 and now owns 62.5% of the company, a stake that was worth $590 million at the end of October.

Subscribers to Venture Capital Journal can read my colleague Joanna Glasner’s take on the market.

VCJ subscribers can also see a complete table of all the VC-backed IPOs of the past 12 months and individual profiles of each of the newly public companies.

What’s your opinion? Is this an anomaly or is the IPO window finally opening wide? With today’s filing for Kayak–backed by Accel Partners, Institutional Venture Partners and others–it would seem more VCs are betting the good times will continue.