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Billion-dollar exits are on the rise.

So far this year, 11 U.S. venture-backed private companies have gone public or agreed to be acquired at valuations of $1 billion or more, per ½ûÂþÌìÌà data. That’s more than double the number from the same period last year.

What’s more, this year’s lineup of big exits includes a record-breaking one: ’s planned $32 billion purchase of cybersecurity unicorn , announced last week. If consummated, the deal would be the largest acquisition of a venture-backed, private startup ever.

For a sense of how exits are trending, we used ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ’s Billion-Dollar Exits Board to dig up some of the standout stats. Here are some of our findings:

Exits spring to life in March: This month is shaping up as one of the busiest in a while for U.S. venture-backed exits. Besides Wiz, we saw another huge tech acquisition last week: ’s $6.2 billion purchase of Silicon Valley AI chip design startup . Overall, there have been eight billion-dollar exits so far this month, with a total value of more than $60 billion.

37 billion-dollar exits in past four quarters: Over the past four quarters, 1 37 U.S. startups have either agreed to be acquired or carried out public offerings at valuations of $1 billion or more, per Crunchase data. That’s almost double the number from the prior 12-month period.

More M&A deals than IPOs: All but one of this year’s billion-dollar exits have been acquisitions. The only IPO was January’s market debut by , a startup developing hormone therapies for obesity and related diseases that is currently valued around $3 billion.

Some purchases are at discounts from prior valuations: Several companies that got acquired did so at valuations lower than their prior peaks. This includes our most recent deal, ’s $2.6 billion purchase of small business insurance policy provider , which had been at $4 billion in 2021.

Another example was , which sold its core gaming assets to this month for $3.5 billion. In 2021, Niantic raised funding at a $9 billion valuation. Additionally, rent-to-own platform sold to for $1 billion, after landing a peak valuation of $2.3 billion nearly four years ago.

And IPOs are coming too …

Even if M&A momentum slows, we can expect to see more billion-dollar exits in coming weeks as companies in the IPO pipeline prepare to hit the market.

The largest debut is expected to be , provider of a fast-growing cloud platform for managing AI infrastructure that filed for its long-awaited IPO earlier this month. It’s reportedly now a $32 billion valuation.

Also this month, , provider of an online platform offering therapy for joint and muscle health, filed another big offering. The San Francisco-based company, which did not disclose a target IPO valuation, was valued at in late 2021.

Not boring

While we don’t know how long it will last, at least one can say that for the time being, the big-ticket startup exit environment is no longer slow and boring. In fact, it’s pretty happening.

We’ll see in coming quarters if it stays that way.

Related reading:

• With Google’s $32B Bid For Wiz, Big Exits Are Finally Picking Up
• With $6.2B Purchase Of Chip Designer Ampere, SoftBank Is Going Big This Year
• Scopely’s $3.5B Niantic Purchase Is Gaming’s Biggest Private M&A Deal In Years

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