Business Blog: IPOs just may be back

Reddit and Astera Labs' AI pitches resonated in a great week for tech IPOs

March 22, 2024

And we're off.

At least, it's starting to look that way. Yesterday, Reddit debuted on the New York Stock Exchange and ultimately the social media company's shares closed almost 50% up. This alone would be green shoots for the IPO market, but if you combine that with AI infrastructure provider Astera Labs' successful IPO on Wednesday? Now we just may be off to the IPO races.

"Both Reddit and Astera’s IPOs are important signals right now," Andrew Saeta, managing director and head of institutional at Forge, said via email. "These are the gatekeepers and if they are successful—then the gate will stay open."

It's impossible to know what will happen from here, but the IPO market right here, right now is looking a whole lot better than it has in a rather long time. And yes, let's take a breather. We still have to see how Reddit, Astera, and whoever's up next fare in the coming few weeks and months, so it might take a second for this to coalesce into "we're back, baby" territory. That all being said, there's now mounting evidence the exit market's starting to jostle out of gridlock.

"Ultimately, IPOs that perform well generate liquidity and that's reinvested," Saeta added. "It feels like it could be the start of a new cycle."

Still, part of this does feel like it's specifically about Astera, Reddit, and AI. I brought this question to Craft Ventures partner Bryan Rosenblatt, who previously worked at Reddit from 2015 to 2018. He joined when there were about 50 employees, and was there as the company grew from a sub-$10 million to $100 million-plus business. The market seems to have bought Reddit's AI pitch—does Rosenblatt?

"Yes, because they legitimately have some of the most valuable data online," he told Term Sheet via email. "There's a reason so many people add 'Reddit' to their Google searches. It's known to produce the best answers on the Internet across any topic you could imagine."

Rosenblatt has described Reddit as looking like a "dystopian Craigslist," back when he joined. I don't know exactly what a dystopian Craigslist looks like, but I'll be sure to ask Midjourney in the coming days. Either way, it's illustrative of how far Reddit has come, at a time when the IPO market needed a win.

We'll have to see what happens from here. (The problem with going public, of course, is that it's not a one-day endeavor. You are then a public company, with public company problems.) But, who knows, we could soon be off to the IPO races. And I could be being pessimistic—it's possible the starting gun has already been fired.

In case you missed it…A quick interest rate update: The Fed this week signaled that it still expects to cut interest rates three times in 2024—but, as anticipated, held off on a cut for now.

See you Monday,

Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Mirador Therapeutics, a San Diego, Calif.-based precision medicine company focused on immune-mediated inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, raised $400 million in funding. ARCH Venture Partners led the round and was joined by OrbiMed, Fairmount, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Point72, Farallon Capital Management, Boxer Capital, and others.

- Loyal, a San Francisco-based biotech company developing a drug designed to extend the lifespan of dogs, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Collaborative Fund, and others.

- Pandion, a Seattle, Wash.-based network for the delivery of e-commerce parcels to residential destinations, raised $41.5 million in Series B funding. Revolution Growth led the round and was joined by Playground Global, Prologis Ventures, Bow Capital, Telstra Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, and others.

- PocketHealth, a Toronto, Ontario-based medical image exchange platform for patients and health care providers, raised $33 million in Series B funding from Round13 Capital, Deloitte Ventures, Samsung Next, Questa Capital, and Radical Ventures.

- Coast, a New York City-based provider of expense cards designed for use by business fleets, raised $25 million in funding from BoxGroup, Avid Ventures, Accel, Insight Partners, Better Tomorrow Ventures, and Vesey Ventures.

- Curb51, a Paris, France-based company researching the biological mechanisms among cancer survivors, raised €15 million ($16.3 million) in seed funding. Sofinnova Partners led the round and was joined by Hitachi Ventures GmbH, Life Extension Ventures, and others.

- Firestorm Labs, a San Diego, Calif.-based manufacturer of unmanned aerial systems for war, raised $12.5 million in seed funding. Lockheed Martin Ventures led the round and was joined by others.

- Ediphi, a Boston, Mass.-based developer of estimating software for contractors, raised $12 million in Series A funding from Norwest Venture Partners.

- Stress-Free Auto Care, a network of tech-enabled automotive service shops in California and Texas, raised $11 million in Series A funding. Forerunner Ventures led the round and was joined by others.

- AirMyne, a Berkeley, Calif.-based developer of direct air carbon capture processes, raised $6.9 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Alumni Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, EMLES, Impact Science Ventures, and others.

- Moondance Labs, the Tortola, British Virgin Islands-based developer of the Tanssi appchain infrastructure protocol, raised $6 million in funding. Scytale Digital, KR1, and SNZ led the round and were joined by Arrington Capital, Borderless Capital, Hypersphere, Blockchain Founders Fund, and angel investors.

- Cleric, a San Francisco-based developer of an autonomous AI engineer for site reliability and infrastructure management, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Zetta Venture Partners led the round and was joined by angel investors.

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PRIVATE EQUITY

- Persistence Capital Partners took Neighbourly Pharmacy, a Toronto, Ontario-based pharmacy chain, private for $1.2 billion.

- Allied Industrial Partners acquired a majority stake in Celebrity Coaches, a Hendersonville, Tenn.-based provider of transportation and logistics for live events and the entertainment sector. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Greater Sum Ventures acquired a majority stake in STRAX Intelligence Group, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based live emergency response platform for public safety agencies and private security organizations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- KKR agreed to acquire a majority stake in Avantus, a Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento, Calif.-based portfolio of solar power plants. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Lead investor Rubicon Technology Partners, along with Galvanize Climate Solutions and Silversmith Capital Partners, acquired a majority stake in Ascend Analytics, a Boulder, Colo.-based provider of energy transition analytics solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

OTHER

- Xponance Alts Solutions, a subsidiary of Xponance, acquired a minority stake in The Copia Group, a Chicago, Ill.-based investment advisor that provides debt and equity solutions to middle-market companies in the U.S. Financial terms were not disclosed.

IPOS

- Boundless Bio, a San Diego, Calif.-based biotech company developing therapies for patients with intractable oncogene amplified cancers, plans to raise up to $107.1 million in an offering of 6.3 million shares priced between $15 and $17 on the Nasdaq. ARCH Venture Partners, Fidelity, RA Capital Management, Bayer HealthCare, Nextech VI, and Vertex Venture Management back the company.

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- World Fund, a Berlin, Germany-based venture capital fund, raised €300 million ($326 million) for their first fund focused on companies developing technologies designed to decarbonize industries.

- Frontline Ventures, a Dublin, Ireland-based venture capital firm, raised $200 million across one growth stage and one seed stage fund focused on U.S.-based business-to-business software companies looking to expand into Europe.

PEOPLE

- Felicis, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm, hired Gabriella Garcia as a deal partner. Formerly, she was with Two Sigma Ventures.