Revolut Hits $45B, SpaceX’s Polar Mission, Databricks Challenges Snowflake

IT’S WEDNESDAY AGAIN

This week in the Navigator, we uncover how Revolut has secured its place as Europe's top fintech and explore the rising challenges in the tech world. Dive into our portfolio updates: where SpaceX gears up for a historic mission, OpenAI combats misinformation, and Databricks makes a bold AI move. Plus, discover how Anthropic's innovation could slash costs for developers.

THIS WEEK’S BREAKING NEWS
Revolut soars to $45B: Europe's fintech crown secured

Revolut's $45bn valuation, up from $33bn in 2021, cements its position as Europe’s most valuable start-up. This was achieved through a $500mn employee share sale at $865.42 per share. With over 45 million customers globally, including 9 million in the UK, Revolut has aggressively expanded, securing banking licenses in Lithuania and Mexico. In 2023, it posted a pre-tax profit of £438mn, a sharp turnaround from a £25mn loss the previous year, with revenues nearly doubling to £1.8bn.¹

MARKET UPDATE
Tech boom hangover: Start-up failures jump 60% in the US

US start-up failures have surged 60% in the past year, with 254 venture-backed companies shutting down in Q1 2024, largely due to the depletion of funds from the 2021-22 tech boom and rising interest rates. Despite this, AI start-ups have captured three-quarters of the $2 billion raised in 2024, even though they represent less than 25% of total customers. Meanwhile, only 9% of 2021 venture funds have returned capital to investors, compared to 25% of 2017 funds at a similar stage.²

AI is supercharging gaming: Faster, cheaper, smarter releases

AI is transforming the global gaming industry by cutting development costs and enabling faster, more efficient production. Generative AI, especially in China’s $40 billion gaming sector, has streamlined tasks like animation and background creation, allowing for quicker, lower-cost game releases. This shift reduces financial risks and diversified revenue streams across the industry, with Tencent’s stock already seeing a 25% rise due to its early adoption of AI technologies.³

PORTFOLIO & CO-INVESTMENT UPDATE
Discover opportunities to connect with leading global pre-IPO unicorns

Through Stableton’s portfolio products and co-investment program, you can explore some of the most promising unicorns before they go public.

Contact us today to learn more about accessing pre-IPO deals and portfolios.

PORTFOLIO NEWS
OpenAI takes down Iranian misinformation effort

OpenAI revealed that Iranian actors used ChatGPT to generate and rewrite content as part of a misinformation campaign. This included creating articles and social media comments, with some posts simply rewriting others' comments. Despite these efforts, the majority of the campaign’s social media posts garnered minimal engagement and there was little evidence of widespread sharing of the web articles generated by the campaign.⁴

SpaceX’s groundbreaking 2025 mission

SpaceX has announced its first human flight to pass over the Earth's poles. This private Crew Dragon mission will be led by Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur Chun Wang, who will be joined by a polar explorer, a roboticist, and a filmmaker. This diverse crew underscores the expanding range of expertise in space ventures, marking a significant milestone in SpaceX’s history and highlighting the convergence of technology, exploration, and private enterprise in the global space economy.⁵

Anthropic Claude 3.5 Sonnet could save devs 90% in costs by “prompt caching”

Anthropic’s Claude Prompt Caching offers a breakthrough in AI cost efficiency by allowing developers to save and reuse prompts, drastically reducing expenses. Prompt caching works by storing frequently used AI instructions (prompts), so they don’t need to be regenerated each time. For Claude 3.5 Sonnet, caching a prompt costs $3.75 per million tokens (MTok), but reusing it only costs $0.30 per MTok—leading to 10x savings over the standard $3/MTok input cost. This makes prompt caching a powerful tool for large-scale AI operations, offering up to 90% cost reduction.⁶

Databricks' $2B AI play: Why it matters now

In June, Databricks quietly acquired AI startup Tabular for an undisclosed amount, now valued at $2 billion. This strategic move is seen as a direct challenge to Snowflake, whose stock has plunged 36% this year, bringing its market cap to around $43 billion—roughly equal to Databricks' valuation. Snowflake’s recent woes include being linked to a massive data breach affecting nearly all of AT&T’s customers in July, adding pressure in the competitive landscape of data and AI-driven analytics.⁷

Fortnite’s return: How Epic Games is challenging Apple’s $85B empire

Epic Games has reintroduced Fortnite and its store to iPhones in the EU, capitalizing on the EU's Digital Markets Act, which mandates that Apple allow third-party app stores on its devices. This move follows Fortnite's 2020 removal from the App Store, a conflict that resulted in lost access to millions of iOS users. With 447 million potential users across the EU, Epic’s return could significantly disrupt Apple's revenue from the App Store, which generates around $85 billion annually.⁸

CHART OF THE WEEK
Secondaries: Where stability meets opportunity

This graph paints a clear picture—secondaries tend to offer more stable and consistent returns compared to other asset classes like private equity or venture capital. With a narrower range in returns, secondaries show less volatility, indicating lower risk. For those interested in private markets, secondaries present a way to access growth potential without experiencing as much of the ups and downs. It’s a way to diversify a portfolio with an eye on stability, making secondaries an interesting option for those who prioritize steadier returns.

THE UNTOLD UNICORN STORY
Ripple: The blockchain backbone of global finance

Ripple uses blockchain technology to revolutionize global payments by connecting banks, payment providers, and digital asset exchanges. This makes cross-border transactions faster, cheaper, and more secure. Trusted by financial institutions globally, Ripple enhances efficiency and transparency, allowing seamless money transfers and reshaping finance with increased speed, reliability, and accessibility.

Fun Fact: The first bank to embrace Ripple's groundbreaking technology was German online bank, Fidor. In 2014, Fidor became a pioneer by integrating Ripple’s blockchain solutions to enhance its cross-border payment processes. This forward-thinking move allowed Fidor to offer faster, more efficient transactions and showcased Ripple’s potential to revolutionize the financial sector. Fidor’s early adoption set the stage for Ripple’s expansion into mainstream banking.¹⁰ A decade later, in 2024, the CEO of a prominent German Web 3 VC firm made headlines by suggesting that Ripple’s XRP could become the world’s reserve currency.¹¹

WEEKLY Q&A
Who are the clients catered by Stableton?

Stableton caters institutional investors, financial intermediaries (such as wealth managers and banks), family offices, and qualified individual investors. Additionally, certain Stableton products are available to retail investors through other financial intermediaries. Until 2024, Stableton focused exclusively on Switzerland, but with the launch of the Stableton Unicorn Top 20 Fund, its investment opportunities are now accessible to investors internationally.

EVENTS
Will you be around? Let us know so we can say hello!

• Future Tech Fest - Dusseldorf (August 22)

• Private Equity UK Summit - London (September 4)

• Baltic VC Summit - Vilnius (September 5-6)

• IPEM - Paris (September 9-10)

• Invest Europe VC Forum - Amsterdam (September 25-26)

• Private Equity Insights DACH - Munich (October 8)

• UAE - Abu Dhabi/Dubai (October 22-24)

And, of course, we’re always happy to have you over at our main office in Zurich, Switzerland.

WHAT’S NEXT
Liked this week’s edition? Share this Stableton Navigator to a fellow investor.

You can also forward this email or copy-and-paste this link: {{rp_refer_url}}