Private Markets: SpaceX lining up banks for IPO

According to media reports, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is lining up Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley for senior roles leading the company’s IPO. Meanwhile, Mews raised $300M in a Series D funding round, led by EQT Growth.

This week’s private company news:

• Alibaba (BABA) is laying the groundwork for a potential listing of its chipmaking division T-Head, seeking to capitalize on strong investor interest in the limited group of companies aiming to challenge Nvidia (NVDA) in the market for AI accelerators, Yuan Gao and Debby Wu of Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. As an initial step, the company plans to restructure the unit so that it is partially owned by employees. Following the restructuring, Alibaba reportedly intends to explore an initial public offering, though the timing has not been determined.
• Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX is lining up Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan (JPM), and Morgan Stanley (MS) for senior roles leading the IPO, The Financial Times’ Ivan Levingston, Arash Massoudi, Stephen Morris, and George Steer report. SpaceX executives have held meetings with bankers in recent weeks as the company prepares for an IPO as soon as this year and is currently conducting a sale of existing shares that would value it at around $800B. Other banks are also likely to land roles on the listing, people familiar with the matter say.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been meeting with top investors in the Middle East to line up funding for a new investment round that could total at least $50B, Bloomberg’s Dinesh Nair, Ryan Gould, Vinicy Chan, and Shirin Ghaffary report. The company is looking to raise $50B or more in the round at a valuation of about $750B-$830B, according to people familiar with the matter.
• AI STARTUP BASETEN – AI inference startup Baseten has raised $300M at a $5B valuation in a round led by venture capital firm IVP and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) CapitalG, with participation from Nvidia, Kate Clark of The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. In particular, Nvidia is investing $150M into the startup as part of the deal, which more than doubles the startup’s valuation, Clark notes.

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

• Mews – The operating system for hospitality announced it has raised $300M in a Series D funding round, led by EQT Growth, with new investors Atomico and HarbourVest Partners, and participation from existing investors Kinnevik, Battery Ventures and Tiger Global. Publicly traded companies in the space include Agilysys (AGYS), Oracle (ORCL), and Sabre (SABR).
• OpenEvidence – The widely-used AI platform by doctors in America said it closed a Series D round of funding of $250M. Publicly traded companies in the space include Health Catalyst (HCAT) and Change Healthcare (UNH).
• Upscale AI – The AI networking infrastructure company, secured a $200M Series A financing led by Tiger Global, Premji Invest, and Xora Innovation with participation from Maverick Silicon, StepStone Group, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, Intel Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures. Publicly traded companies in the space include Hubspot (HUBS), Salesforce (CRM), and ZoomInfo (ZI).
• Claroty – The cyber-physical systems protection company secured $150M in Series F funding round, led by Golub Growth, an affiliate of Golub Capital, with additional confirmed participation from existing investors up to $50M. Publicly traded companies in the space include Tenable (TENB), Fortinet (FTNT), Palo Alto Networks (PANW).
• Preply – The global language learning marketplace announced the closing of its Series D round, securing $150M in funding led by WestCap. Publicly traded companies in the space include Duolingo (DUOL), Udemy (UDMY), and Coursera (COUR).

Unicorns to watch this week:

• Harvey – The legal AI startup offers tools for law firms and in-house counsel. With an estimated valuation of $5B, the company is part of the growing legal tech wave. Publicly traded companies in the space include Thomson Reuters (TRI), Intapp (INTA), and Veritone (VERI).
• Kalshi – The prediction-market startup has recently raised $185M in a funding round led by Paradigm, valuing the company at about $2B, amid regulatory approval momentum and investor interest in alternative trading. Publicly traded companies in the space include CME Group (CME), IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), and Cboe Global (CBOE).
• Halter – The cattle tech/AgTech company has recently completed a $100M Series D financing round at a $1B valuation. The company makes smart collars and virtual fencing for cattle, enabling ranchers to manage herds via app. Publicly traded companies in the space include Zoetis (ZTS).
• Decagon – The AI customer support agent company has a valuation of about $1.5B after a $131M Series C funding round co-led by Accel and a16z Growth. Publicly traded companies in the space include Salesforce (CRM), Freshworks (FRSH), and HubSpot (HUBS).
• Zama – The cryptography/blockchain infrastructure is the first unicorn in the FHE – Fully Homomorphic Encryption – space. The company hit an estimated $1B valuation after raising $57M in a Series B round. Publicly traded companies in the space include Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD).

IPOs to watch:

• AGI Inc (AGBK) – AGI Inc, or Agibank, has filed with the SEC for an initial public offering of its Class A common shares. The company intends to apply to list its Class A common shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “AGBK.”
• PicS N.V. (PICS) – The company filed for an initial public offering of Class A common shares,” and said it will not seek a listing for its Class B common shares on Nasdaq or on any other exchange.
• Grayscale Investments (GRAY) – The company filed a prospectus for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GRAY.” Grayscale says it is the largest digital asset-focused investment platform in the world, with $35B in assets under management as of September 30.
• Klook Technology (KLK) – The company, which identifies itself as “the largest pan-regional experiences platform in Asia-Pacific” by gross transaction volume in 2024, announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed initial public offering of American Depositary Shares representing its ordinary shares.
• Speed Group (SPED) – The company filed a prospectus for 2.5M share initial public offering. It expects the IPO price to be in the range of $4.00 to $5.00 per. The company’s operating subsidiary, Speed Logistics, is an e-commerce logistics provider providing end-to-end logistics solution in Hong Kong, Europe and North America. The services include warehousing, customs clearance, air transportation, and final delivery from the European airports.
• 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.