This Week in Pre-IPO Stocks

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E145: FigureAI's $675m capital raise, Stripe stock buyback at $70b, xAI Grok 2.0 differentiators Sep 03, 2024

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00:19 | FigureAI (humanoid robots)
- AI and humanoid robots drive efficiency and will drive cost of goods/services to $0, drive unlimited GDP
- $675m raise $2.6b valuation; OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia
- 10b humanoid robots by 2040
- Musk is projecting 16b to 32b humanoid robots, Telsa Optimus is a humanoid robot
- humanoid robots fit easily into a human world to easily replace humans
11:49 | Stripe
- These companies are so big they’re doing share buybacks!
- Planning new tender offer to repurchase shares from employees
- Entire offer financed with Stripe’s own cash, a shift from external funding
- Generated $615M in free cash flow in June quarter vs. $500M cash burn in 2022
- Valuation at $70B (secondary), up from $50B in 2022 and $65B in last tender
- Up to 8,000 employees can sell up to $50,000 of vested shares at $27.51/share
- Expanding beyond core payments into billing software; segment on track for $500M annual revenue
25:39 | xAI
- xAI differentiators are becoming clear; real time data, most accurate answers, Musk effect (i.e. unlimited capital)
- AI large language model platform business
- Released Grok-2 and Grok-2 Mini beta LLMs on X platform
- Enterprise API arriving later this month
- Top-four position on LMSYS chatbot leaderboard
- Grok-2 Mini: efficient, ideal for speed/resource-critical scenarios
- Focus on expanding multimodal understanding
- Available to Premium/Premium+ subscribers on X at $8/month
- Secondary market valuation: $25.7B (+6.9% vs May 2024 round)

E144: xAI launches Grok-2 and Grok-2 Mini on X platform, Klarna expands into banking with new products, Epic Games targets mobile market with new storefront, Ramp’s AI-powered growth drives $9.1B valuation, X projects $2B in 2024 ad revenue, Databricks ac Aug 16, 2024

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Subscribe to AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Research at agdillon.com/subscribe;
- Wednesday = secondary market valuations, revenue multiples, performance, index fact sheets
- Saturdays = pre-IPO news and insights, webinar replays
00:07 | xAI Launches Grok-2 and Grok-2 Mini on X Platform
- AI large language model platform business
- Released Grok-2 and Grok-2 Mini beta LLMs on X platform
- Enterprise API arriving later this month
- Top-four position on LMSYS chatbot leaderboard
- Grok-2 Mini: efficient, ideal for speed/resource-critical scenarios
- Focus on expanding multimodal understanding
- Available to Premium/Premium+ subscribers on X at $8/month
- Secondary market valuation: $25.7B (+6.9% vs May 2024 round)
02:11 | Klarna Expands into Banking with New Products
- Payments and consumer lending business
- Launched "Klarna balance" and "cashback" in 12 markets, including U.S. and Europe
- Klarna balance offers up to 3.58% interest in EU, no interest in U.S.
- Expansion to disrupt retail banking and increase customer loyalty
- Tied to lending products, potentially reducing default rates
- Secondary market valuation: $10.3B (+53.4% vs Jul 2022 round)
- Rumored tender offer could precede IPO
03:15 | Epic Games Targets Mobile Market with New Storefront
- Virtual reality and video game tech company
- Launching new mobile storefront, targeting 100M installs by year-end
- Aims for significant share of $188B games market, 50% from mobile
- 12% transaction fee vs. 30% from Apple/Google
- Store to open to third-party developers in December
- Secondary market valuation: $18.0B (-20.2% vs Feb 2024 round)
04:21 | Ramp’s AI-Powered Growth Drives $9.1B Valuation
- Fintech company founded in March 2019
- Valued at $9.1B (secondary), +19.6% vs Apr 2024 round
- Serving 25,000+ businesses, including Shopify and Boys and Girls Club of America
- AI used for transaction categorization, bookkeeping, expense management
- AI in sales and marketing boosts efficiency and profitability
- Rapid growth with lean operational structure
06:28 | X/Twitter Projects $2B in 2024 Ad Revenue
- Projected $2B in 2024 ad revenue, down from $2.5B in 2023 and $4.5B in 2021
- Focus on payments, video, and AI innovations
- Plans for payments system with "Payments" button in navigation
- X TV app launched on Amazon and Google platforms
- Competing directly with YouTube's massive market share
- Fidelity values X at $12.3B (-72% from Oct 2022 acquisition)
08:45 | Databricks Acquires Tabular in $2B Deal
- Analytics and AI company
- Acquired Tabular for nearly $2B, despite $1M in annual recurring revenue
- Tabular backed by $30M from Altimeter Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Zetta Venture Partners
- Acquisition driven by competition with Snowflake
- Databricks' current valuation: $42.7B (secondary), -1.2% vs Nov 2023 round
- Snowflake's struggles compounded by a data breach affecting AT&T customers
09:49 | Hadrian Acquires Datum Source to Enhance Defense Capabilities
- Defense tech company
- Raised $220M since 2020, valued at $500M (secondary)
- Acquired Datum Source, valued at $30M, to better serve defense startups
- Acquisition brings 30 new customers, Datum's 14-person team
- Part of a broader trend of acquisitions in defense tech, with $129.3B VC invested since 2021
10:50 | Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance
- agdillon.com/subscribe to receive weekly pdf report in your inbox
11:38 | Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance
- agdillon.com/subscribe to receive weekly pdf report in your inbox

E143: Anduril raise at $14b; Groq raise at $2.8b; Live AI projects at JPM, MStanley, Goldman Aug 13, 2024

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00:22 | Groq’s $640M series D drives valuation by 143%
- Semiconductor company focused on AI inference chips
- Raised $640M in Series D, valuation up to $2.8B (primary)
- 143% increase from Feb 2024 round
- Backed by Cisco, Samsung, BlackRock
- Funds to scale tokens-as-a-service and deploy 108,000 LPUs by 2025
- Aims to challenge Nvidia in AI chip market
09:12 | Anduril’s $1.5B round pushes valuation to $14B
- Defense tech company
- Raised $1.5B, new valuation $14B
- Significant increase from $10B in Dec 2023
- Revenue doubled to $500M; 28x valuation multiple
- Funding led by Founders Fund, Sands Capital; new backers: Fidelity, Baillie Gifford
- Investment to expand "Arsenal" manufacturing platform; 5M+ sq ft for mass production of military systems
19:41 | AI use cases playing out
- JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs all announced live AI projects in the last two months
- Klarna replacing 70 employees per month with AI; headcount down from 4500 to 3700, $40m+ annual savings, more efficient and higher quality outcomes
- Businesses are adopting?!
- Agreed that usage will only increase from here?

E142: Revolut's $45B valuation with employee share sale, Anduril’s $1.5B round pushes valuation to $14B, Groq’s $640M Series D boosts valuation by 143%, Google acqui-hires Character.AI team, Reddit acquires Memorable AI, JPMorgan rolls out LLM suite to 60 Aug 09, 2024

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WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: AG Dillon will be hosting a webinar on August 14 at 1:30pm ET titled “How RIAs Can Invest into Venture Capital and Still Custody at Schwab”. Step by step details of investing into alternatives at Schwab and we’ll explore how AG Dillon venture capital funds are specifically designed to eliminate incremental RIA operational and administrative work when investing into alternatives. Register at www.agdillon.com/webinar.
Weekly pre-IPO reports…
- Valuations, revenue multiples, performance = www.agdillon.com/reports
- Market update pdf = www.agdillon.com/update
- Index fact sheet = www.agdillon.com/index
00:06 | Revolut's $45B Valuation with Employee Share Sale
- Online bank initiated $500M share sale at $45B valuation (secondary)
- Europe’s most valuable start-up
- Eligible employees (7,000 staff) can sell 20% of vested shares at $865.42/share
- Secured UK banking license; 9M UK customers, 45M globally
- 2023: £438M pre-tax profit, revenue almost doubled to £1.8B
- Valuation surged from $15B, Jan secondary market valuation, to $45B in 8 months (+200%)
01:19 | Anduril’s $1.5B Round Pushes Valuation to $14B
- Defense tech company
- Raised $1.5B, new valuation $14B
- Significant increase from $10B in Dec 2023
- Revenue doubled to $500M; 28x valuation multiple
- Funding led by Founders Fund, Sands Capital; new backers: Fidelity, Baillie Gifford
- Investment to expand "Arsenal" manufacturing platform; 5M+ sq ft for mass production of military systems
02:40 | Groq’s $640M Series D Boosts Valuation by 143%
- Semiconductor company focused on AI inference chips
- Raised $640M in Series D, valuation up to $2.8B (primary)
- 143% increase from Feb 2024 round
- Backed by Cisco, Samsung, BlackRock
- Funds to scale tokens-as-a-service and deploy 108,000 LPUs by 2025
- Aims to challenge Nvidia in AI chip market
03:18 | Google Acqui-hires Character.AI Team
- Custom AI chatbot company
- Google licensed Character.AI's technology in an acqui-hire deal
- Co-founders and some team members to join Google
- Character.AI’s valuation rose to $2.5B (secondary), up from $1B
- Company will operate independently with interim CEO Dominic Perella
- Users sent 371M messages to chatbots; introduced voice features
04:06 | Reddit Acquires Memorable AI
- Reddit’s first acquisition since IPO
- Acquired Memorable AI to enhance ad content with generative AI
- Memorable AI founded in 2021; optimizes ad effectiveness
- Reddit generates 98% of its revenue from ads ($804M in 2023)
- Terms of the deal not disclosed
04:42 | JPMorgan Rolls Out LLM Suite to 60,000 Employees
- JPMorgan Chase launched generative AI tool LLM Suite
- Tool assists with tasks like email writing, document summarization
- Rolled out to 60,000 employees; part of broader AI integration strategy
- Aims to boost productivity, avoid dependency on a single AI model provider
- Key for operations, including global payments business moving $8T daily
05:22 | Ola Electric Pops 20% on IPO
- Indian electric scooter company surged 20% on IPO
- Raised $731.6M, valuation $4.8B
- India’s largest IPO since May 2022
- Fiscal year revenue grew 90% to $603M; net loss of $191M
- Delivered 330,000 electric scooters, more than doubling sales
- Proceeds to fund capital expenditures and R&D
05:58 | Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance
- www.agdillon.com/reports for full pdf
06:29 | Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance
- www.agdillon.com/index for pdf with constituent level performance by year

E141: Cerebras targets October IPO, OpenAI rolls out advanced voice mode, Harvey's $100M Series C round, Canva acquires Leonardo.ai, Ramp's AI-powered financial tools, Ramp's AI-powered financial tools, Anduril secures Air Force contracts, Airtable acquir Aug 02, 2024

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WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: AG Dillon will be hosting a webinar on August 7 at 1:30pm ET titled An Introduction to the AG Dillon Top 10 Pre-IPO Stock Fund. Fund invests into the top 10 pre-IPO stock by valuation. Pre-IPO stock exposure to artificial intelligence, robotics, space economy, fintech, virtual/augmented reality in one fund. Pre-IPO Indexing delivers 450% cumulative returns over the last 20 yrs, on average*. Register at www.agdillon.com/webinar.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Weekly pre-IPO reports…
- Valuations, revenue multiples, performance = www.agdillon.com/reports
- Market update pdf = www.agdillon.com/update
- Index fact sheet = www.agdillon.com/index
00:06 | Cerebras Targets October IPO
- AI semiconductor company
- Targeting IPO launch as soon as October
- Enlisted Barclays and Citigroup as lead banks
- Confidentially filed with the SEC
- 2021 funding round: $4B valuation (primary)
- Raised $250M in Series F
- Flagship system CS-3 for AI workloads
- Secondary market valuation: $5.4B (+26% vs Nov 2021 round)
01:01 | OpenAI Rolls Out Advanced Voice Mode
- AI large language model company
- Launching ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode
- Initially for ChatGPT Plus users, full rollout in fall 2024
- Features hyperrealistic audio responses, emotional recognition
- Tested by over 100 external red teamers
- Secondary market valuation: $105B (+22% vs Apr 2024 round)
01:54 | Harvey's $100M Series C Round
- AI startup for lawyers
- Raised $100M in Series C led by Google Ventures
- Total funding: $206M
- Valued at $1.5B (primary)
- Uses OpenAI's GPT-4 for legal tasks
- Annual recurring revenue and workforce tripled since December
03:08 | Canva Acquires Leonardo.ai
- Graphic design tech company
- Acquired Leonardo.ai to enhance AI tech stack
- Leonardo.ai to continue operating independently
- Canva's valuation: $28.4B (secondary)
- Over 19M registered users, 1B+ images generated
- Canva's revenue close to $2B with 180M monthly users
04:16 | Ramp's AI-Powered Financial Tools
- Business-focused fintech
- Uses AI to streamline financial processes for 25,000+ businesses
- Customers include Shopify and Boys and Girls Club of America
- AI capabilities: OCR for receipt matching, fraud detection, spend optimization
- Tripled annual recurring revenue and workforce since December
- Secondary market valuation: $8.8B (+15% vs Apr 2024 round)
05:44 | Anduril Secures Air Force Contracts
- Tech-focused defense contractor
- Developing prototypes for Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA)
- Expected production contracts by 2026
- CCA to perform strike, reconnaissance, electronic warfare missions
- Secondary market valuation: $15.5B (+11% vs May 2024 round)
06:45 | Airtable Acquires Dopt
- Productivity SaaS company
- Acquired Dopt to enhance AI capabilities
- Dopt to wind down service on August 15
- Airtable's AI group to integrate Dopt's team
- Launched Airtable Cobuilder for app creation via chat interface
- Secondary market valuation: $3.5B (-70% vs Dec 2021 round)
07:44 | Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance
- www.agdillon.com/reports for full pdf
- Pre-IPO +2.91% for week, +69.42% for last 1yr
- Up week: Snyk +80.2%, Notion +13.2%, Revolut +8.1%, Airtable 6.9%, Plaid 5.2%
- Down week: Hugging Face -16.1%, Groq -10.4%, Cohere -5.6%, Klarna -3.5%, ByteDance -2.5%
- Top valuations: ByteDance $286b, SpaceX $210b, OpenAI $105b, Stripe $70b, Databricks $44b
08:40 | Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance
- www.agdillon.com/index for pdf with constituent level performance by year

E140: Josh Brown, Michael Batnick, Aaron Dillon - 2024 IPO Outlook and Current State of Pre-IPO Stock Market Jul 30, 2024

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Subscribe to The Compound…
Apple Podcast = here
Youtube = here
Visit www.agdillon.com to learn more about AG Dillon Pre-IPO Stock Funds.
00:00 – Intro
00:48 – 2024 IPO Overview
06:00 – Current Pre-IPO Market Analysis
13:33 – Liquidity in the Private Pre-IPO Stock Market
13:41 – RIA Demand for Pre-IPO Stocks
14:37 – Two US Stock Markets; Public & Pre-IPO Market

E139: Klarna savings millions using AI, Continuation funds vs single stock SPVs, xAI to raise another $5b? Jul 29, 2024

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00:00 - Intro
02:52 - Continuation funds vs single stock SPVs
21:20 - xAI to raise another $5b?
33:02 - Klarna savings millions using AI

E138: Tesla to invest $5B in xAI?, OpenAI launches SearchGPT, Wiz walks away from $23B Google deal, Klarna replacing 70 employees per month with AI, Revolut's $45B valuation surge, Cohere's $5.5B valuation boost, Goldman’s pre-IPO investment, Neuralink te Jul 26, 2024

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Weekly pre-IPO reports…
- Valuations, revenue multiples, performance = www.agdillon.com/reports
- Market update pdf = www.agdillon.com/update
- Index fact sheet = www.agdillon.com/index
00:07 | Wiz walks away from $23B Google deal
- Cloud security company
- Opted for IPO over $23B Google deal
- Influenced by antitrust concerns
- Aims for $1B annual revenue; reached $350M last year
- 40% of Fortune 100 clients
- Valuation $13.1B (+9.1% vs May 2024)
- 37x revenue multiple; Google deal 65x
- Potential $20B IPO at 20x revenue
01:34 | Revolut's $45B valuation surge
- UK online bank
- Nearing $500M employee share sale
- Valuation up to $45B (previously $40B)
- Investors: Coatue Management, Tiger Global
- $429M net income in 2023, forecast $976M in 2024
- Revenue: $2.2B in 2023, projected $3.7B in 2024
- 20M customers (March 2024)
- Aiming for $9.3B revenue by 2026
- 17x revenue multiple
02:32 | Revolut secures UK banking license
- Secured UK banking license
- Can offer credit products, take deposits
- Serves 45M global customers, 9M in UK
- Previously relied on EU banking license
- "Mobilisation" phase, capped at £50K deposits for up to 12 months
03:22 | OpenAI launches SearchGPT
- AI large language model company
- Launching SearchGPT search engine
- Summarizes info, cites sources like WSJ
- Follow-up questions, linked sources
- Sidebar for more results
- Data: reputable news sources; e.g. News Corp, Axel Springer
- Valuation $103B (+20% vs Apr 2024)
04:04 | Cohere's $5.5B valuation boost
- AI large language model company
- Valued at $5.5B after $500M Series D
- Led by PSP Investments, new backers include Cisco, Fujitsu
- Doubled from $2.7B in 2022
- Annual revenue: $13M (2023) to $35M (March 2024)
- Headcount to double from 250
- Models support 10 languages
- Valuation $5.7B
05:17 | Goldman’s pre-IPO investment
- Goldman leading $540M investment in NEA's continuation vehicle
- Includes stakes in 11 companies: 38% Databricks, 10% Plaid
- Provides liquidity to NEA's partners
- Investors: Industry Ventures, Pathway Capital, Goanna Capital
- Priced at 19% discount to NEA valuations
- Highlights venture capital innovation
07:23 | Neuralink tender?
- Brain computer interface company
- Preparing stock buyback for employees, investors
- Valuation up to $8B (from $3.5B)
- Secondary market trades reflect 117% premiums
- Employees compensated in shares; trade at $50 (up from $35 in January)
- Prefers controlled tender offers
08:10 | Tesla to invest $5B in xAI?
- AI large language model business by Elon Musk
- Polled users on Tesla investing $5B in xAI
- Raised $6B, valuation $24B post-money
- X rumored to have 25% ownership
- Valuation $26.1B (+8.6% vs May 2024)
08:54 | Klarna replacing 70 employees per month with AI
- Consumer lender and payments company
- AI enhances efficiency across operations
- AI-driven customer service cut backlog from 30 days to zero
- Saved $40M; reduced 700 outsourced personnel
- AI handles 80% of marketing copywriting
- Headcount down from 4500 to 3700
- Increased cost per employee; higher salaries, more equity
- Valuation $10.7B (+60% vs Jul 2022)
11:27 | Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance
- www.agdillon.com/reports for full pdf
- Pre-IPO +0.30% for week, +63.28% for last 1yr
- Up week: xAI +8.8%, Stripe +5.7%, Anthropic +3.7%, Rippling +3.3%, Ramp +2.8%
- Down week: Groq -7.6%, Chime -7.5%, CoreWeave -4.2%, OpenAI -2.8%, Canva -1.3%
- Top valuations: ByteDance $294b, SpaceX $210b, OpenAI $103b, Stripe $70b, Databricks $44b
12:09 | Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance
- www.agdillon.com/index for pdf with constituent level performance by year

E137: Stripe’s $70b valuation; Revolut $40b valuation; $267m for Human Interest; Tekion $4b valuation; Starlink approved in South Sudan; OpenAI GPT-4o Mini launched; Anthropic, Menlo launch fund Jul 19, 2024

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Weekly pre-IPO reports…
- Valuations, revenue multiples, performance = www.agdillon.com/reports
- Market update pdf = www.agdillon.com/update
- Index fact sheet = www.agdillon.com/index
00:07 | Stripe’s $70b valuation
- Online payments company
- Sequoia inter-fund transaction
- $27.51/share at $70b valuation, +7.7% vs its last round
- Sequoia LPs get liquidity, realized returns
- Emerging tech is staying private for longer
- Growth companies are private not public, time to allocate to pre-IPO stocks
01:41 | Revolut $40b valuation
- UK online bank
- Tiger Global to lead $40b round
- $2.2b 2023 revenue, 2x vs 2022
- $574m 2023 pretax profit vs -$33m in 2022
- 18.1x revenue multiple
- $25b secondary market valuation, +60% overnight return!
02:25 | Anthropic, Menlo launch fund
- Anthropic is AI large language model biz, Menlo is premier Silicon Valley VC firm
- $100m fund to invest into AI startups
- Menlo makes investment
- Anthropic provides AI LLM credits
- Anthropic = $22b secondary market valuation, +20% vs Jan 2024 round
03:22 | $267m for Human Interest
- 401k focused fintech
- 3 minutes to open 401k account
- 25,000 small business customers
- $100m in ARR
- 70% projected 2024 sales growth
- IPO planned within two years
04:03 | Tekion $4b valuation
- Automotive technology business
- $200m investment from Dragoneer
- Founder is former Tesla CIO, jay Vijayan
- 2025 to be 1st profitable year
- Other investors = Index Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Advent International
04:53 | Starlink approved in South Sudan
- SpaceX’s satellite internet business
- Only 36% of South Sudan citizens connected to internet
- SpaceX seeks official distributor in South Sudan
- $210b valuation based on current tender offer in process
05:44 | OpenAI GPT-4o Mini launched
- AI large language model business
- 4o Mini is 60% cheaper vs 4o proper
- 4o Mini is replacing GPT-3.5 Turbo
- Businesses like smaller models as they get job done but at lower expense
- Lower expense improves ROIs
- Watch for big earnings pop and acquisitions from businesses that implement AI
07:32 | Pre-IPO Stock Market Weekly Performance
- www.agdillon.com/reports for full pdf
- Pre-IPO +0.19% for week, +65.28% for last 1yr
- Up week: Revolut +8.0%, Chime +5.5%, Deel 4.4%, Ramp +3.4%, SpaceX 3.2%
- Down week: Cohere -11.2%, Epic Games -3.2%, Anduril -2.8%, Neuralink -2.4%, eToro -2.3%
- Top valuations: ByteDance $290b, SpaceX $205b, OpenAI $106b, Stripe $70b, Databricks $44b
08:23 | Pre-IPO Stock Vintage Index Weekly Performance
- www.agdillon.com/index for pdf with constituent level performance by year
- 2024 Vintage Index top contributors since inception: Rippling +107%, Revolut +68%, Anduril +51%, Klarna +46%, Epic Games +32%
- Key metric averages for all Vintage Indexes 5 years old or older…
445% cumulative return since inception
61% realized, distributed to investors
5.45 TVPI; 3.31 DPI, 2.14 RVPI
4.1 years to return the fund

E136: Google buying Wiz for $23b, BlackRock buys Preqin for $3.2b, OpenAI defines AGI for the world Jul 16, 2024

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00:00 - Intro
00:21 - Google buying Wiz for $23b
09:05 - BlackRock buys Preqin for $3.2b
21:07 - OpenAI defines AGI for the world

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