Will we see any more IPOs this year? Maybe not, amid a brutally volatile market. The latest casualty, according to a report in All Things Digital, is travel site Kayak, which has postponed its IPO.

However, the company plans to maintain its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Might as well be prepared for when the IPO window opens up again, right?

Actually, Kayak continues to grow at a nice pace. For the first six months of this year, revenues increased by 36% to $109.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA came to $13.3 million. The site saw 443 million user queries, up 49% over the past year. Read 

While IPOs might be a tough bet for the rest of the year, venture capitalists still are optimistic. They continue to pour huge amounts of money into high-growth companies. And, as seen with the recent public offerings of companies like Zillow (NYSE:Z), HomeAway (NASDAQ:AWAY) and LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), it still looks like investors are interested in next-generation dot-coms.

So what companies are VCs looking at? One interesting example is GrubHub, which raised $50 million in a new funding. The investors include Lightspeed Ventures, Mesirow Financial, Benchmark Capital, Greenspring Associates and DAG Ventures.

GrubHub got its start back in 2007. The founders met while at Apartments.com but got the entrepreneurial itch. Basically, they saw an opportunity to transform the restaurant business. GrubHub would make it extremely easy to order food online, then have it delivered. The service would be free to users, but companies would be required to pay a commission for each lead. Read 

Despite all its drama, Groupon still is the dominant player in the daily-deals space. But that probably does not matter much. In light of the tough market conditions, it looks increasingly unlikely that Groupon will launch its IPO this year. No. 2 daily-deals player LivingSocial probably will share the same fate.

According to a Bloomberg report, it looks like LivingSocial instead will raise $200 million in private capital. JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) is expected to lead the financing.

This is certainly a big letdown. After all, it was not long ago that LivingSocial was planning to raise at least $1 billion in an IPO, with a valuation of $10 billion. The company even was able to raise $400 million in April, including marquee investors like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). Read 

In today’s volatile markets, investors even have a tough time buying solid companies like Proctor & Gamble (NYSE:PG), Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and IBM (NYSE:IBM). Isn’t the world falling into a recession?

Well, this kind of pessimism means nothing to venture capitalists. Not even the terrible IPOs of Pandora (NYSE:P) and Demand Media (NYSE:DMD) have had an effect.

Hey, there always is something new in Techland. Just take a look at Tumblr. This week, the company raised a cool $85 million in financing. Investors included Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners, The Chernin Group, Capital, Union Square Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Even Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson wrote a check. Read 

Even when the equities markets are in the bull mode, it’s not easy to pull off an IPO. A CEO needs to spend lots of time wooing investors as well as making sure the business is running smoothly. It’s a tough balancing act.

That’s why it is important to have experienced leadership. This certainly has been critical for recent IPOs like Zillow (NYSE:Z) and LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD).

But when it comes to the Groupon deal, things have been much different. The company’s 29-year-old CEO, Andrew Mason, can’t seem to do anything right. Read 

Wasn’t Zynga supposed to be a slam-dunk IPO? It sure seemed like it when the company filed its S-1 back in early July. But of course, since then the equities markets have experienced extreme volatility. As a result, Zynga has delayed its offering.

But Zynga might have more to worry about. According to its latest filing, the company has experienced a slowdown in the business. In the second quarter, Zynga attracted 59 million average daily users, which compares to 62 million in the prior quarter. As a result, bookings dropped by about 4% — this never has happened for Zynga.

The problem? The company has had a dry spell with its games. Read