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Venture Investors Hoped for an IPO Recovery in 2025. Now, It’s on Hold.
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By Yuliya Chernova, WSJ Pro
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Good day. The stock rout will make it difficult for new issuers to go public, a disappointing development for a venture market in dire need of liquidity.
“It’s a monumental challenge to price an IPO in this kind of market—when major indexes are actively plummeting, and the VIX Volatility Index is above 25,” said Matthew Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of pre-IPO research and IPO-focused exchange-traded funds.
The VIX Index, created by Cboe, measures 30-day expected volatility in the U.S. stock market. The index jumped above 28 early Tuesday, up from about 16 a month ago.
“This sort of market shock pushes back IPO timelines,” Kennedy said.
Leading into the year, some investors and founders in the venture market expected improved conditions would finally open the gates for more venture-backed initial public offerings after three slow years.
Yet 2025 got off to a sluggish start and the recent declines in stock values of high-growth tech names are reducing prospects for a turnaround. The market has been reacting to a global trade war and a rising risk of a recession. Companies that pursue IPOs in these conditions would likely need to settle for lower valuations, Kennedy said.
Read the full article.
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And now on to the news...
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PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
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OpenAI wants businesses to build their own AI agents. OpenAI is giving businesses the ability to build their own artificial-intelligence agents, which are technologies that can independently perform tasks on behalf of humans, The Wall Street Journal reports. The San Francisco-based AI lab on Tuesday unveiled an agent-building platform that lets companies create their own bots for work, such as financial analysis and customer service.
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The company’s announcement comes as both competition and hype around agents grow.
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Agent technology, which hasn’t yet seen wide adoption among companies, promises to usher in the next wave of corporate productivity. But that wave of productivity is still far off, experts say.
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3.8%
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Rise in Tesla’s shares on Tuesday, after the EV maker shed 15% of its market value Monday.
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Cyber Reporting Rules Savaged in House Hearing
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Lawmakers and industry experts sharply criticized the patchwork of federal rules that companies must follow when reporting hacks, with some calling for a full rewrite of an omnibus rule due this fall, WSJ Pro reports. Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R., N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on cybersecurity and infrastructure protection, said the change in administration and leadership at federal agencies brings an opening for Congress to force through reforms and harmonize rules. “This new administration presents an opportunity to get cyber incident reporting right. We should seize it,” Garbarino said at a hearing Tuesday.
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University Gets $40 Million to Start Cyber and AI College
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The University of South Florida will establish a college dedicated to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, following the largest gift in its history, WSJ Pro reports. Investors Arnie and Lauren Bellini have donated $40 million to the school to establish the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing. USF officials say it is the first U.S. school to combine cyber and AI education in one college. The investment is the latest in a series of financial gifts from Bellini, the former chief executive and co-founder of tech services company ConnectWise, which private-equity titan Thoma Bravo bought for $1.5 billion in 2019.
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Funds
Aligned Climate Capital closed its second venture fund at $85 million to make seed through Series B investments in clean energy startups.
Equator, a Nairobi-based climate tech investor focused on sub-Saharan Africa, closed its first fund with about $55 million in commitments.
People
Ironspring Ventures, which invests across the industrial supply chain, added Natan Reddy and Sam Natbony as principals. Reddy was most recently principal at 25madison. Natbony was previously a vice president at LoneTree Capital.
Cybersecurity startup Immersive appointed Mark Schmitz as its new chief executive. He most recently served as president at Collibra and interim CEO at Citrix Systems.
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Mesh, a San Francisco-based crypto payments network, completed an $82 million Series B round led by Paradigm.
Norm Ai, a New York-based regulatory AI agent startup, picked up a $48 million investment from Craft Ventures, Bain Capital, Blackstone Innovations Investments, Citi Ventures and others.
Scimplify, a Houston-based specialty chemicals platform, landed $40 million in Series B funding co-led by Accel and Bertelsmann India Investments.
360 Privacy, a Nashville, Tenn.-based provider of hybrid digital security services to high-profile individuals, collected a $36 million growth equity investment from FTV Capital.
Infinite Uptime, a provider of predictive maintenance and energy efficiency technology to process industries, landed a $35 million investment led by Avataar Ventures. The company has offices in Alpharetta, Ga., Dubai and India.
Trust & Will, a San Diego-based digital estate planning platform, raised more than $25 million in Series C funding led by Moderne Ventures.
Worth, an Orlando, Fla.-based fintech platform for onboarding and underwriting workflow automation, was seeded with a $20 million investment led by TTV Capital, alongside $5 million in debt funding.
Podqi, a San Francisco-based startup using AI to automate brand protection, was seeded with a $3.2 million investment led by General Catalyst.
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Ben Meiselas recording the podcast MeidasTouch in his home office outside Los Angeles. PHOTO: STEPHANIE NORITZ FOR WSJ
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