Private Markets: Anthropic projects $70B in revenue in 2028

AI startup Metropolis has raised almost $500M for AI parking garages. 

This week’s private company news:

• Crusoe, a startup developing a large data center in Texas for Oracle (ORCL) and OpenAI, is arranging an employee share sale that values the seven-year-old firm at around $13B, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction, The Information’s Anissa Gardizy, Natasha Mascarenhas and Sri Muppidi report. The deal involves selling around $120M worth of employee shares and would value them at a 30% premium to an equity funding round Crusoe announced just weeks ago, these people said.
• Ripple announced a $500M strategic investment at a $40B valuation. The round was led by funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities, with participation from Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital (GLXY), Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace. “This investment reflects both Ripple’s incredible momentum, and further validation of the market opportunity,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. The investment follows Ripple’s strongest year to date and a recent $1B tender offer at the same valuation.
• Anthropic this summer hiked its most optimistic growth forecasts by roughly 13% to 28% over the next three years and projected generating as much as $70B in revenue in 2028, up from close to $5B this year, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s financials, The Information’s Sri Muppidi says. The company expects demand from businesses for its AI models to drive that growth. In 2028, Anthropic projects it could generate as much as $17B in cash, compared to the nearly $47B of cash burn OpenAI has projected, the author writes.
• Amazon.com has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity AI demanding that the artificial intelligence search startup stop allowing its AI browser agent, Comet, to make purchases online for users, Bloomberg’s Shirin Ghaffary and Matt Day report. The e-commerce giant is accusing Perplexity of committing computer fraud by failing to disclose when its AI agent is shopping on a user’s behalf, in violation of Amazon’s terms of service, according to people familiar with the letter sent on Friday. The document also said Perplexity’s tool degraded the Amazon shopping experience and introduced privacy vulnerabilities, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

Some of the biggest capital raises by private companies this week include: 

• Metropolis Technologies – The tech-enabled parking lot network announced the closing of a $1.6B capitalization, including a JP Morgan Chase Bank (JPM) arranged $1.1B Term Loan B and a $500M Series D funding led by a fund managed by LionTree. Publicly traded companies in the space include Conduent (CNDT), Cubic (CUB), and Samsara (IOT).
• Armis – The cyber exposure management and security company secured a pre-IPO funding round of $435M, bringing the company’s valuation to $6.1B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Palo Alto Networks (PANW), SentinelOne (S), and CyberArk (CYBR).
• Beacon Software – The AI holding company building the permanent home for essential vertical software and services announced a $250M Series B financing led by General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and D1 Capital. Publicly traded companies in the space include Thryv (THRY), nCino (NCNO), and AppFolio (APPF).
• Synchron – The non-surgical brain-computer interface technology company raised $200M Series D financing round. The funding round was led by Double Point Ventures, alongside existing investors ARCH Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Bezos Expeditions, NTI and METIS. Publicly traded companies in the space include Neuronetics (STIM) and Integra LifeSciences (IART).
• Braveheart Bio – The late clinical-stage biotechnology company announced its launch with $185 million in Series A financing. Publicly traded companies in the space include Cytokinetics (CYTK) and Bristol Myers (BMY).

Unicorns to watch this week:

• Firecrawl – The AI web crawler startup has recently raised $14.5M in a Series A funding round, bringing its total valuation to an estimated $16.2M. Publicly traded companies in the space Elastic N.V. (ESTC), Snowflake (SNOW), and Open Text (OTEX).
• Abridge – The healthcare plus AI combo is resonating with investors, with the company currently valued at about $5.3B. Publicly traded companies in the space include CareCloud (CCLD) and IQVIA (IQV).
• Pathos – The biotech/AI company has recently achieved unicorn status, with a valuation of $1.6B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Exscientia (EXAI), Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX), and Modrena (MRNA).
• Cyberhaven – The cybersecurity company is a newer unicorn, having reached $1B valuation recently. Publicly traded companies in the space include Broadcom (AVGO), Microsoft (MSFT), and Check Point (CHKP).
• Owner – The restaurant tech platform is valued at around $1B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Toast (TOST), Olo (OLO), and Block (XYZ).

IPOs to watch: 

• Medline (MDLN) – The provider of medical-surgical products and supply chain solutions filed a prospectus for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq.
• Evommune (EVMN) – The clinical-stage biotechnology company developing innovative therapies that target key drivers of chronic inflammatory diseases has filed for an initial public offering and applied to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
• Central Bancompany (CBC) – The company announced its filing of a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its Class A common stock. In connection with the proposed initial public offering, the Board of Directors of Central Bancompany approved a 50-for-1 stock split in the form of a stock dividend, whereby each shareholder of record as of the October 20 record date will receive 49 shares of Class A common stock for each share owned as of the record date.
• Ethos (LIFE) – The life insurance technology company announced that it filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.
• Lendbuzz (LBZZ) – The company is offering an undetermined number of shares of its common stock and the selling stockholders identified in this prospectus are offering additional shares of common stock, according to an initial public offering prospectus filed with the SEC.

“Private Markets” is The Fly’s recurring series of stories on the latest moves in the private sector, largest unicorn companies and initial public offerings to watch. Fly subscribers, add $PRIVATE to your portfolio for alerts on breaking news in the startup and venture capital space.