Upon the onset of 2024, the secondary market has evolved as outlined below.
1) There are select momentum driven companies (SpaceX, OpenAI, Anduril, Redwood Materials, Hugging Face, Cohere, etc) in the Generative AI and aerospace and defense industries where access to investment opportunities is paramount and there is less emphasis on fundamental analysis. Investor demand significantly outshines available supply. Given that secondary deals are largely blocked in these names and liquidity is limited, investors and sellers can transact via a SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle).
Jan 22, 2024
Byju’s was trying to raise $200 million in a rights issue at a roughly $225 million valuation.
Circle Internet Financial confidentiality documents for its upcoming IPO.
DailyPay raised $175 million ($100 million in expanded secured credit and $75 million in new equity) at a $1.75 billion pre-money valuation.
Flexport raised $260 million in a convertible note from Shopify.
The private markets are full of abundant opportunities to invest in later stage growth narratives. While several investors pursue the flight towards quality names that have a $10B+ valuation and have significant amount of news coverage, other investors seek to invest in esoteric names where the risk is more but there is higher potential upside.
Read MoreJan 9, 2024
AppDirect raised $100 million in a new funding round.
Canva was performing a $1 billion tender offer at a $26 billion valuation.
Relativity Space was raising a new funding at a $4.2 billion valuation.
Jan 2, 2024
Devoted Health raised $175 million at $12.87 billion valuation.
Open AI was having preliminary discussions to raise new funds at a $100 billion valuation.
Reddit generated $800 million in revenue for FY 2023.
During the peak crypto run, several startups in the category raised sequential rounds of capital to develop their tech stack and buoy acquisitive growth.
Recently, Rainmaker data has shown that late stage investing in crypto names has slowed, allowing these companies to grow into their valuation. Moreover, the lag in buyer competition offers investors the opportunity to explore private growth narratives at significant discounts.
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