Stableton Navigator | OpenAI’s FT Partnership, Revolut’s Growth Strategy, Key Market Trends
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In this week's Stableton Navigator, we cover OpenAI's new deal with the Financial Times, part of their strategy to team up with top data sources. We also delve into significant portfolio news such as Revolut's planned hiring spree and media strategy, suggesting strong growth. We examine Rubrik's successful IPO, underscoring an active market and robust investor interest. Join us for more on the key trends shaping the investment world.
Highlight of the Week
OpenAI has secured a licensing agreement with the Financial Times, enabling ChatGPT to summarize FT articles. This partnership is another big step in promoting ethical AI. It's especially key due to recent legal challenges, such as the lawsuit from The New York Times. The agreement shows a commitment to transparency, fairness, and sets a new standard for data usage in the AI industry.
Market Update
Rubrik's recent IPO raised $736 million, with shares priced at $32, exceeding expectations. The IPO was oversubscribed 20 times, showing high investor interest in tech companies. Rubrik's valuation is now $5.6 billion, a significant increase from 2021.(1)
European private equity megafunds hit a new high in 2023, growing from €188.4 billion to €276.1 billion in two years. The rise is driven by big institutional investments and an improving macroeconomic environment, showing the sector's growing power.(2)
Venture capital activity is intensifying, as noted by Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital. The clearing VC backlog and a filling IPO pipeline signal robust market movements. Gerstner, a respected investor with a strong track record in tech investments, highlights these trends as a delayed response to public market corrections.
Portfolio News
 | Stripe returns to cryptocurrency payments with a focus on USDC, a stablecoin. It will be available on platforms like Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon, as announced at Stripe's Connect developer conference. This displays their strong dedication to utilizing blockchain for improved financial transactions.(3) |
 | The Financial Times has striked a deal with OpenAI to license out its content, marking a progressive step towards fair content use in AI. This deal let's ChatGPT make short summaries of FT articles. It supports clear and paid use of journalistic work in AI applications.(4) |
 | Anthropic's Claude 3 Opus, a leading AI model, is now available on Amazon Web Services (AWS) via the Amazon Bedrock platform. This collaboration enhances Anthropic's visibility and reach. It uses AWS's extensive infrastructure to showcase its top AI capabilities in complex tasks. Now, Amazon together with Anthropic, stands tall among top players like Microsoft and Google.(5) |
 | Revolut plans to increase its staff by 40% in 2024, reaching 11,500 employees by year's end. New hires will work in sales, customer support, and financial crime prevention, reflecting the company's growth and global service enhancements.(6) |
 | SpaceX successfully launched 23 Starlink satellites and achieved its 300th rocket landing, marking a significant milestone in the company's reusable rocket program and the expansion of the Starlink network.(8) |
Stableton News
Further expansion: Stableton is expanding its investment options. Last year, we launched the Stableton Unicorn Index (USD) AMC. In April, we introduced the Stableton Unicorn Top 20 Fund. Now in May, Stableton’s institutional-grade Luxembourg co-investment program will go live. The program will allow Stableton’s portfolio investors to participate in single-deal opportunities via our Luxembourg setup.
Additionally, based on very positive feedback from the market, we will expand our international product offering further. We started partnership discussions with strong international players to offer local products such as feeder funds, interval funds, or Sharia-compliant strategy versions. Please let us know if you would like to explore cooperation.
Chart of the Week
Market Momentum: Revenue multiples of public growth companies have expanded - this should encourage more private companies to consider going public. We see signs of an opening of the IPO window everywhere.
The Untold Unicorn Story
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research company founded in 2015 with the goal of developing safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can outperform humans at most economically valuable work. The company has created big language models like GPT-4 and advanced image and video models like DALL-E and Sora. OpenAI was a non-profit, then switched to a "capped-profit" model in 2019 to raise money while staying focused on its mission. The company has received significant investments from Microsoft, which provided $1 billion in 2019 and $10 billion in 2023.
Fun fact: Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, once seriously considered a run for Governor of California. This was revealed during a conversation with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who mentioned Altman as a potential candidate. Had he pursued this path, Altman might have brought his disruptive Silicon Valley tactics to the political scene. We can only guess about the big impact he might have had on state governance.(9)
Q&A and Learning
Given the product's semi-liquid nature, how can the Stableton Unicorn Top 20 Fund ensure enough portfolio liquidity?
The Stableton Unicorn Top 20 Fund can serve quarterly net redemptions of up to 15% NAV, due to key liquidity features.
Net subscriptions: We expect net subscriptions due to significant demand and a continuously growing offering.
Multiple co-investment channels: We improve liquidity by facilitating transfers of underlyings to other investors via our co-investment structures or netting portfolio holdings based on externally validated secondary market prices between our parallel portfolio products based on our strict allocation policies, requiring special investment committee approvals.
Liquid secondaries: As a secondary market specialist, we can divest by selling positions in the rapidly growing secondary market similar to how we invest in these underlyings, given our strong sourcing network.
Liquidity via IPOs: Over the past 10 years, on average 16% of the portfolio per year went public or were acquired, creating an advantageous source of liquidity.
Further features are in the pipeline, which shall improve the liquidity further. These include utilizing a debt facility, working with liquidity providers, or facilitating fund secondaries with renowned buyers of secondaries.
Where to Meet Us
Reach out if you would like to meet
London VC World Summit, London (May 3)
Doha, Qatar (May 13)
Abu Dhabi, UAE (May 14)
Dubai, UAE (May 15)
0100 CEE Conference, Prague (May 14-15)
Private Wealth Forum UK, London (May 16)
SuperRetun / SuperVenture, Berlin (June 4-7)
AltsHK, Hong Kong (June 13)
Fund Forum, Monaco (June 24-26)
Israel Private Markets Summit, Tel Aviv (July 16)
And, of course, we are always happy to meet you at our main offices in Zurich, Switzerland!
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