Crypto Spring, Vertical Moves in Gen AI, Fresh Capital for Klarna, and a Revamped Launchbay 25 Index
Greetings!
Crypto spring in full swing?
According to The Information, several top Wall Street banks—JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley—are actively engaging with crypto clients, positioning themselves for potential IPOs that could follow the U.S. presidential election. This renewed interest highlights optimism in the sector, driven by expectations of improved regulatory clarity, particularly when Donald Trump returns to office.
Industry insiders anticipate that clearer regulations could pave the way for high-profile IPOs from leading crypto firms like Kraken Digital Asset Exchange and Chainalysis. As market sentiment turns more positive, bankers are eager to secure their stake in these potential listings.
So far, crypto shares have remained relatively quiet on the secondary market. In October, crypto-related bids made up just 0.2% of all bid volumes, with asks at 0.4%. It will be interesting to see if this renewed momentum shifts the market dynamics in the coming months.
CoreWeave is preparing for an IPO
CoreWeave, one of the fastest-rising cloud-computing startups in the AI space, is reportedly gearing up for an IPO in the first half of 2025. The company has enlisted Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase as lead underwriters, according to the sources close to the matter.
CoreWeave recently joined the Launchbay 25 Index, driven by its strong secondary market activity and substantial market valuation. Stay tuned as we dive deeper into the latest updates on the Launchbay Index in our upcoming coverage.
Perplexity for finance
Perplexity, another recent addition to the Launchbay Index, has just rolled out "Perplexity for Finance," marking its entry into one of its first targeted use cases. The new tool allows users to seamlessly search historical earnings reports, conduct peer comparisons, and access detailed financial analyses.
Many VCs view finance as a sector where specialized AI players can outperform larger, generalized platforms due to their domain expertise. Perplexity itself answered: "The tool’s success will hinge on its precision, user experience, and ability to deliver unique insights that go beyond what's currently available."
Regarding secondary market analytics, Perplexity’s capabilities are still evolving. For now, it doesn't yet provide comprehensive analysis — but we’re already leveraging it heavily for its robust search functionalities.
Anthropic’s next move into vertical competition
Anthropic is making a strategic entry into a challenging vertical for general AI players through a new partnership. It has teamed up with Palantir and AWS to deliver AI solutions to defense customers. The collaboration will provide access to Anthropic’s Claude 3 and Claude 3.5 models, which will be integrated into Palantir's Artificial Intelligence Platform and hosted on AWS infrastructure.
These services will be accessible via Palantir's defense-accredited platform, Impact Level 6 (IL6), certified by the U.S. Department of Defense for managing highly sensitive information. This partnership is part of a growing trend where AI firms, including Meta and OpenAI, are forging deals with U.S. defense sectors.
Anthropic had already signaled its intent to expand into public sector projects by bringing select Claude models to AWS' GovCloud. This latest move deepens its commitment to supporting defense-related AI applications.
But don’t worry, (some) niche Gen AI players are doing great
On the flip side of the niche AI trend, we're also witnessing significant momentum for private companies partnering with industry giants.
Take Anysphere and Mercor — both collaborate closely with OpenAI. These companies are currently in talks to raise funding at valuations that are substantially higher than just a few months ago. Aligning with established players can still be a lucrative strategy in the evolving Gen AI landscape.
Fresh capital for Klarna
Klarna has secured a £30 billion financing partnership with Elliott Advisors, focused on offloading the bulk of its short-term, interest-free receivables in the UK. This marks the culmination of a three-year effort by Klarna to develop a capital-offloading platform that appeals to institutional investors.
The agreement allows Klarna to offload "substantially all" of its UK-based short-term, interest-free receivables freeing up £30 billion in fresh capital. This influx is set to bolster Klarna’s global expansion and support its growth initiatives.
Launchbay 25 index becomes less SaaS and more AI
We've reconstituted the Launchbay 25 Index, replacing 9 out of the 25 companies due to shifts in market activity. Newly added participants include xAI, Perplexity, CoreWeave, Lambda, Cohere, Glean, Anduril, Chime, and ByteDance. Meanwhile, Aledade, Arctic Wolf, Gusto, Ramp, Revolut, Monzo, Notion, ServiceTitan, and Navan have been removed from the index.
The Launchbay 25 Index features the private companies with the highest valuations and most significant activity on the Launchbay platform. Some companies were removed from the index due to decreased trading interest from buyers and sellers, while others—like Revolut and Monzo—were excluded due to company-imposed trading restrictions.
Current portfolio:
The Launchbay Index reflects the weighted secondary market value of the top 25 companies since its inception on July 1, 2023. Year-to-date, the Index has posted an impressive 57% growth. Over the past three months, companies in the Index accounted for 56% of all activity on the Launchbay platform, measured by listed trading volume.