PreIPO INTELLI™ Weekly Insights | Series 42
Friday, July 21th, 2023 | Volume 1 Series 42 | Exciting IPO Prospects, Google's AI News Tool, Twitter's Job Listings, and Recent Funding & Acquisitions!
Greetings, everyone! As the week comes to a close, we have some exciting updates from the INTELLI™ team to share with you. In this edition we cover 7 Hot IPO Prospects of 2023 and Beyond, Google's testing of an AI tool for news articles, and Twitter's preparation for a job listings feature. It also mentions recent funding by Karat Financial, Unstructured, and eBay's acquisition of Certilogo.
7 Hot IPO Prospects of 2023 and Beyond 🚀
Stripe Valuation $50 billion Stripe, based in San Francisco, is a prominent payment processing giant. The company experienced an impressive fundraising round of $6.5 billion from existing and new investors in March 2023. However, its valuation has decreased by nearly 50% from its peak valuation of $95 billion in March 2021. Despite the reduction, many investors remain optimistic about Stripe's potential as one of the largest IPOs ever, driven by the increasing demand for e-commerce services during and after the pandemic.
Klarna - Valuation: $6.7 billion Klarna, the pioneer in the Swedish buy-now-pay-later industry, raised $800 million in funds in July 2022, valuing the company at $6.7 billion. This represents an 85% decline from the prior year, when private investors believed Klarna was worth almost $50 billion, making it Europe's most valuable startup. The decline in valuation is due to the lack of demand for companies that struggle to generate profits and burn through cash.
Chime - Valuation: $25 billion Chime is a fintech company that offers a no-fee mobile banking platform, partnering with actual banks to issue debit and credit cards. Initially valued at $1.5 billion in 2019, Chime's valuation surged to $25 billion in the summer of 2021, driven by high investor interest in fintech startups. Although the company aimed for a valuation of $35 billion to $45 billion at the time of its expected IPO in early 2022, it decided to put the IPO on hold due to concerns among investors in the fintech industry.
Databricks - Valuation: $33 billion Databricks has become a major player in big data by offering tools to simplify database management, implement AI, and visualize data effectively. The cloud-based provider of AI-powered data analytics was valued at around $33 billion during its most recent funding round in October 2022, down from $38 billion in August 2021. However, Databricks remains determined to be a key player in the AI data and cloud computing space. It is developing its AI technology to compete with the likes of ChatGPT and expanding its venture arm by investing in data security and software companies.
Reddit - Valuation: $5.5 billion Reddit's IPO plans have been postponed amid challenges in the tech IPO market. The company earned a valuation of $10 billion in August 2022 after raising more than $400 million in funding. However, a recent revaluation of its holding by Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund downgraded the overall valuation to $5.5 billion. Reddit is known for its large online community of users dedicated to diverse interests, making it an appealing IPO prospect once market conditions improve.
Impossible Foods - Valuation: $7 billion Impossible Foods has gained popularity for its plant-based burgers, making appearances in supermarkets and restaurants across the United States. The company aims to reduce meat production and promote climate preservation through its plant-based products. With a valuation of $7 billion, Impossible Foods CEO, Peter McGuinness, hinted at a possible IPO in early 2023. However, the company might wait for a more favorable market environment before going public.
Better.com - Valuation: $7.7 billion Better.com, an online mortgage lender founded in 2014, began as Better Mortgage and expanded to offer real estate, title, and homeowners' insurance services. Its valuation climbed to $4 billion in 2020, and a funding round in April 2021 further boosted it to $6 billion. However, Better.com faced challenges, including a lawsuit and an SEC probe into alleged investor misleading, which slowed down its IPO plans. The company is now reevaluating its $8 billion SPAC deal amid a cooling housing market and higher borrowing costs.
Google is currently testing an AI tool capable of writing news articles 🤖
Image Credits: Artur Widak/NurPhoto / Getty Images
Google is reportedly testing an AI-powered tool called "Genesis" that can automatically generate news stories and has been presenting it to publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and News Corp, the owner of The Wall Street Journal. The tool is seen as a potential personal assistant for journalists, automating certain tasks to free up their time. However, some executives find it unsettling, expressing concerns about disregarding the effort put into producing accurate news stories.
Google clarified that the tool is intended to assist journalists, offering options for headlines and writing styles, not to replace their essential role in reporting and fact-checking. The company is exploring providing AI-enabled tools to help journalists with their work, especially smaller publishers, aiming to enhance productivity. Other news organizations like NPR and Insider have also expressed interest in exploring the responsible use of AI in their newsrooms.
While some news organizations have used AI to generate specific types of stories like corporate earnings, AI-generated articles still represent a small fraction compared to those written by journalists. The development of Google's new tool may raise anxiety due to potential misinformation concerns if articles aren't thoroughly fact-checked and edited. Past instances of AI-generated articles have led to corrections being issued due to factual errors or possible plagiarism, highlighting the need for careful implementation of AI in news production.
Twitter is gearing up for a job listings feature
Twitter seems to be preparing to introduce a new feature that will enable verified organizations on the platform to post job listings on their profiles. Although the feature hasn't been officially announced yet, some verified organizations have already been able to post job listings under their Twitter bios. These job listings direct interested applicants to the company's website to learn more about the position and apply.
The feature, reportedly referred to as "Twitter Hiring," will allow verified organizations to attract talent to their open positions by adding up to five job positions to their profiles. Twitter will also offer the option for verified organizations to import all their open jobs to the platform by connecting to a supported ATS or XML feed, simplifying the process of adding listings to Twitter.
This development aligns with Twitter owner Elon Musk's hint in May, where he mentioned the possibility of introducing job-related features. By launching this feature, Twitter is entering the realm of job-seeking platforms, competing with popular companies like LinkedIn and Indeed. The move is further supported by Twitter's acquisition of Laskie, a job-matching tech startup, back in May, suggesting that the acquisition may have influenced the development and implementation of the job postings feature.
For verified organizations, it seems the job postings feature will be included in Twitter's Verified for Organizations package, costing $1,000 per month, meaning they won't have to pay extra to access this new functionality.
Recent Funding and M&A recap 🤝
Karat - $70 Million Series B
Karat Financial, a platform aiming to assist content creators in managing their finances, has secured $70 million in Series B funding. Their innovative business credit card, offering higher limits based on creators' social and financial stats, has gained popularity. Now, Karat plans to introduce a card focused on building personal credit history in partnership with Visa. The company's unique underwriting model evaluates factors like social reach and audience engagement, enabling them to serve creators often overlooked by traditional banks. The funding will help Karat scale its services and support creators in accessing capital for business growth.
Unstructured - $25 Million Series A
Unstructured.io, founded in 2022, is a promising startup tackling the challenges faced by enterprises in embracing Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4. With a platform that extracts and stages enterprise data for LLM compatibility, Unstructured.io aims to simplify the data preparation process for AI development.
Co-founded by Brian Raymond, Matt Robinson, and Crag Wolfe, who previously worked together at Primer AI, Unstructured.io has identified a common bottleneck in the data processing workflow - ingesting and pre-processing raw customer files containing NLP data. Traditional data integration and document processing solutions fell short in addressing this issue, prompting the team to create a comprehensive solution.
Unstructured.io provides a suite of tools to clean and transform enterprise data, catering to various file formats and eliminating time-consuming tasks for data scientists. The platform's innovative approach has garnered significant traction, with over 700,000 downloads and adoption by more than 100 companies.
eBay Completes Acquisition of Certilogo
eBay has successfully closed its acquisition of Certilogo, an AI-powered company specializing in digital IDs and authentication for apparel and fashion goods. The financial details of the deal remain undisclosed, and Certilogo's CEO, Michele Casucci, will continue to lead the Milan-based company.
Certilogo's digital technology aids brands in managing the lifecycle of their garments, while also providing consumers a means to verify authenticity and access reliable product information. With this acquisition, eBay aims to strengthen its authentication capabilities for secondhand fashion items on its platform.
eBay's VP, Charis Marquez, expressed excitement about the addition of the Certilogo team, which brings cutting-edge technology and passion to eBay's community of fashion enthusiasts. The acquisition allows eBay to offer secure, connected product solutions to brands, protecting customers from counterfeit items and supporting recommerce through counterfeit-proof digital product passports.
The purchase of Certilogo aligns with eBay's strategic investment in the growing pre-loved fashion category, solidifying its position as a trusted destination for shopping pre-owned apparel and fashion. Additionally, the acquisition enhances customer confidence in making sustainably conscious purchase choices.
As always, stay tuned for more updates and insights from the team at INTELLI™.