Small-caps, small potatoes, right? Wrong.

The Russell 2000, the benchmark for small-cap companies, is outperforming the S&P 500 this year. Even more notable: Several recent small and midsize companies' initial public offerings are trouncing the likes of SpaceX and SK Hynix.

Shares of Lime, Bending Spoons, and DPC Holdings have all soared more than 40% since going public this year, while SpaceX's value has dived 20% post- IPO. These companies might not be household names, but you'd want them in your portfolio right about now.

The performance gap between the IPO market's Davids and Goliaths certainly suggests that some bigger deals might have been overpriced. But more importantly, the strong receptions for Bending Spoons and other small names signal that the IPO market is finally healthy again.

"The venture pipeline is finally flowing in earnest again, giving equity investors fresh access to tomorrow's potential leaders instead of watching them stay locked up in private hands like the past few years," Jessica Rabe, co-founder of DataTrek Research, said in a report Thursday.

There's plenty of evidence that the floodgates are indeed open.

Neutron Holdings, which does business as Lime, the scooter and e-bike rental company, has climbed more than 40% since its June 30 IPO to about $37. That includes a 15% pop Wednesday after the company's earnings topped forecasts and revenue jumped 24%. Lime's market value is now $2.3 billion, up from $1.6 billion on its IPO day.

Bending Spoons' shares have surged more than 50% since going public the same day. The Italian tech conglomerate owns AOL, Vimeo, and Evernote and is looking to buy other brands that have fallen on hard times.

The stock jumped 17% Wednesday after it announced the acquisition of software firm Airtable for $1.3 billion, a huge discount to Airtable's peak valuation of $11.7 billion in 2021. Bending Spoons' market value has surpassed $27 billion, up from around $18 billion at its IPO price.

Shares of DPC Holdings have rocketed more than 65% from their IPO price, including a 6% gain on Thursday. The $7.5 billion company owns Doncasters Group, a manufacturer of parts for aerospace engines and industrial gas turbines.

The list of IPO success stories goes on. Womenswear maker Reformation; biotechs Scribe Therapeutics and Kardigan; and Mexican silver miner Sinda have also enjoyed solid gains since their debuts this summer.

Most of these firms are outside of the booming tech and AI sector, which reflects the market's growing appetite for a variety of new companies. It's also telling that none of them are nearly large as SpaceX, which was supposed to be the poster child for this year's IPO market.

Though Elon Musk's rocket launcher/broadband provider/AI company is worth $1.4 trillion, its first two months of trading have disappointed . The stock has tumbled more than 50% from its post-IPO peak, including a 14% decline Wednesday after its first earnings report.

Similarly, South Korean memory chip leader SK Hynix -- with about a $1 trillion market valuation -- is down slightly since listing its stock in the U.S. in early July. In fact, shares of SK Hynix, Samsung, and their U.S. rival Micron Technology have all fallen in the past month on concerns about a possible memory chip market bubble and worries that hyperscalers will eventually need to scale back their extravagant AI spending.

But the skepticism about the valuations for SpaceX and SK Hynix clearly hasn't hurt lesser-known IPOs, and it might not lead to an IPO slowdown either. Many other private companies are waiting in the wings to go public, including expected blockbuster debuts from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Mark Klein, CEO of Neostellar, a publicly traded venture-capital firm, said he isn't too concerned that the pullback in SpaceX stock will hurt demand for IPOs writ large. His firm has a stake in Lime, as well as investments in ChatGPT owner OpenAI, software firm Canva, fintech Plaid, and fitness tracking device maker Whoop.

"This is still a robust IPO environment," Klein told Barron's. "There are plenty of companies that are going to try to access the IPO market. It will be open to companies that should be public."

The strong showings for Lime and Bending Spoons so far, despite the concerns about SpaceX's valuation, are a clear sign that the IPO window isn't shutting anytime soon -- and that there's plenty of room for the little guy.