Last year wasn’t a good year for new companies to breakout, but market observers believe this is the year that will all change. Take advantage of the IPO activity with the use of the IPO-related ETF.

A recent survey done by the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm KPMB LLP revealed that venture capital investment is on the rise again and the venture capital community expects IPO activity and valuations of venture-backed companies to continue its uptrend, writes Manuel Goncalves for PR Newswire.

Last week was the busiest for initial public offerings in the U.S. in more than a year and a half, with seven IPOs raising more than $3 billion. The total was the highest since March 2008, when Visa’s (V) $20 billion IPO led the way to a record-setting week. Companies going public last week included:

• A123 Systems, Inc (AONE): The electric car battery maker saw its shares surge more than 50% on Thursday, despite boosting both the offering price and the number of shares offered.
• Shanda Games (GAME): Chinese computer game company
• Select Medical Holdings (SEM): Operator of specialty hospitals and outpatient rehabilitation clinics
• Artio Global Investors (ART): Fund manager with nearly $50 billion in assets.
  
• Colony Financial (CLNY): “Vulture” private equity fund that buys troubled commercial property debt
  
• Vitacost (VITC): An online health supplement retailer, Vitacost became the first e-commerce IPO since November 2007
• Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (ARI): Invests in mortgage assets.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the demand for IPOs may reflect “a scramble among money managers who had stayed on the sidelines during much of the recent stock rally.” Last week’s surge isn’t expected to be a blip on the radar: over the past two months 20 companies have filed registrations with the SEC, compared to only seven filings in the first seven months of the year.

For those investors who want to invest in initial public offerings (IPOs) but would prefer to spread the risk out over a few companies, an ETF could be the answer.

IPOs are initial public offerings from a company that has decided to go public, but aside from a few blockbuster launches, it can be tough to sort out which companies will deliver and which will falter. An ETF that tracks them allows investors to play more than one IPO company at a time to help spread the risk out and to diversify, lessening the overall risk factor.