On August 20, Andres Garcia-Amaya, Zoe Financial CEO, joined ‘The Exchange’ on CNBC to discuss how IPO pops will draw in private companies to become public. Garcia-Amaya mentioned that while many companies are staying private longer, the IPO market is starting to show signs of life with successful public debuts, which may encourage some private companies to go public. He suggested that because of this, the AI boom in particular may be in the middle innings, not just the beginning. Andres Garcia Amaya, the CEO of Zoe Financial, was asked to Breaking down the current state of CapEx in AI, particularly whether it could be higher than in the 1990s, and what has already been seen, Garcia-Amaya drew an analogy to the late 1990s internet boom and stated that a necessary infrastructure boom had to precede it, which he compared to laying the rails for the internet with things like fiber-optic cables.
Prior to this sentiment as well, Tony Kim, Centerview Partners co-president, joined CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell: Overtime’ on August 14 to discuss the IPO market and the dealmaking environment. Discussing whether the first-day trading pops were due to pent-up demand or if the IPOs were being priced too low, Kim stated that the correct read is that the IPO market, which had been weak, is now coming back. As a result, companies are choosing to price conservatively to ensure a successful landing. He mentioned an interesting statistic: in the past decade, only about a dozen IPOs have seen a first-day gain of over 150%, but in 2025, there have already been two such IPOs with Figma and Circle. Kim also described the M&A market as robust and explained that after a period of uncertainty in April, the market has settled, and people have a clearer view of a soft landing.
That being said, we’re here with a list of the 10 best up and coming stocks with huge upside potential.
Our Methodology
We sifted through the Finviz stock screener to compile a list of the top stocks that went public in the last 5 years. We then selected the 10 stocks with an upside potential of over 25% as of September 12. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of their upside potential. We have also added the hedge fund sentiment for each stock, as of Q2 2025, which was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
10 Best Up and Coming Stocks with Huge Upside Potential
10. Kyndryl Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 36
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 40.85%
Kyndryl Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KD) is one of the best up and coming stocks with huge upside potential. On September 12, Kyndryl and VML, which is a WPP (NYSE:WPP) global brand, creative & digital transformation company, announced a new global partnership. The collaboration reimagines customer experiences by leveraging AI, data, and modern infrastructure.
The partnership will combine Kyndryl’s services, which include Kyndryl Consult and its co-creation service Kyndryl Vital, with VML Enterprise Solutions’ expertise in experience transformation. The goal is to help customers move beyond small proofs of concept to fully scalable, AI-driven solutions. The two companies will deploy expert squads of designers, AI experts, and engineers to assist with implementation.
Potential applications of this partnership include using AI agents to orchestrate data for personalized banking in the financial services sector and helping retailers use AI to enhance omnichannel commerce and unify their technology platforms across areas like order management and customer relationship management.
Kyndryl Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KD) is a technology services company and IT infrastructure services provider in the US, Japan, and internationally.
9. Cava Group Inc. (NYSE:CAVA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 41
Average Upside Potential as of September 12: 41.20%
Cava Group Inc. (NYSE:CAVA) is one of the best up and coming stocks with huge upside potential. On September 2, Argus lowered the firm’s price target on Cava Group to $76 from $110, while keeping a Buy rating on the shares. Cava lowered its same-store sales growth estimates for the year, which the firm sees as a realistic calibration.
Earlier for Q2 2025, Cava Group’s revenue reached $278.2 million, which represented a 20.3% increase year-over-year. Cava reported an adjusted EBITDA of $42.1 million, which was a 22.6% increase from Q2 2024, and a net income of $18.4 million. The company’s restaurant-level profit margin was 26.3%. In this quarter, Cava also opened 16 new restaurants, which brought the total number of locations to 398.
However, the company anticipates that tariffs on some products could affect their costs. Still, Cava’s leadership stated that brand health scores, which include NPS and value scores, have improved. The company is also using technology like Hyphen and AI-camera-vision to improve operational efficiency and digital order accuracy.
Cava Group Inc. (NYSE:CAVA) owns and operates a chain of restaurants under the CAVA brand in the US. It also offers dips, spreads, and dressings through grocery stores.
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