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Darktrace, one of London's most successful tech companies, has agreed to a $5.32bn cash deal with US private equity firm Thoma Bravo. The deal represents a 44% premium to Darktrace's three-month average share price and marks the 20th takeover of a London-listed company this year. This acquisition highlights the crisis facing the London Stock Exchange and its deep discount relative to the US market. Since January, deals worth more than £26bn have been agreed upon, with companies sold off at an average of 36% above their market value. This acquisition should be a wake-up call to the government, as the UK's leading tech company is being acquired by US private equity. #technews #LondonStockExchange #Darktrace

Aravind Srinivas Nice and there's lots to like about perplexity.ai that responds conversationally with instant reliable answers to questions and complete sources and citations. It's powered by multiple AI large language models in-house and third-party such as Google’s Gemini, Mistra 7BI, Anthropic’s Claude 2.1 OpenAI’s GPT-4. The choice of models to use is available to users who subscribe to the company’s Pro plan at $20 per month, which provides availability to Perplexity Copilot, which unlocks many features including personal preferences, file uploads and image generation. But this is your best feature 😉 Copilot tailors search queries with custom follow-up questions, introducing the concept of generative user interfaces that removes the burden of prompt engineering and does not require users to ask perfectly phrased questions to get the answers they seek. This enables users to gain more relevant and comprehensive answers than other AI chatbots, traditional search engines, or research tools. Cheers....Steve CAIO / CPO myplankeeper.ai AI startup advisor 'force multiplier'  https://lnkd.in/g38mWcs Carla Garcia, CRPC®, CPRC

The news that #Darktrace will soon be an asset owned by US #PEfirm Thoma Bravo has led to another round of despair in the UK tech and #investment communities.    As the UK’s largest homegrown success story for public tech stocks in recent years, this take-private is yet another example of the UK’s #tech company exodus.    But despite this, there are a number of reasons why this deal doesn’t only spell doom and gloom for the UK.    What is often left out of these discussions, for example, is that the UK is evidently producing some of the high-quality tech companies that those with deep pockets want to own.    Private equity and cross-border M&A Partner Andrew Ross wrote about why this deal isn’t all bad for UK tech for UKTN. Read the full piece here: https://bit.ly/3KoDoWN 

Some unicorns and late-stage VC-backed companies restrict their employees from selling their stock, often at the request of their boards of directors. Not this one. Andrew Feldman and his executive team at Cerebras Systems (a high-flying AI chip startup mounting a challenge to the likes of NVIDIA and Groq) have been willing to recognize the blood, sweat and tears that employees with vested options have put into building this impressive business, by allowing them to sell their shares in the private market. This is not just great news for current and former Cerebras employees but also for the company and its investors! Why? Liquidity typically leads to higher stock pricing, making it more attractive to investors. How so? The short answer is that when a stock is more liquid, its riskiness declines. When risk goes down, so does the discount rate (the cost of capital) that investors use to price the asset. When the discount rate goes down, all else equal, the price should go up! This enhanced liquidity and pricing can help a company with fundraising valuations, consolidating the cap table before an IPO, and bridging the valuation gap between an illiquid private market and a very liquid public market. Congratulations to Andrew and the Cerebras team for delivering on your promise to your employees and investors by allowing a liquid market for your stock. And bravo to your board members (which, according to PitchBook include Eric Vishria of Benchmark , Brad Gerstner of Altimeter, Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital, Lior Susan of Eclipse, Thomas Laffont of Coatue, and Pierre Lamond) for supporting your vision! #secondarymarket #privatemarket #marketplace #unicorns #stockoptions

Why Darktrace’s US private equity deal isn’t all bad for UK tech. 🔎 Darktrace is the UK’s largest homegrown success story for public tech stocks in recent years. The news that it will soon be an asset owned by US private equity firm Thoma Bravo has led to another round of despair in the UK public market and tech and investment communities. This take-private is, rightly, yet another example of the UK’s tech company exodus. The US markets are often seen as more appealing and more dynamic for attracting capital and supporting growth than the UK. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eSTahZe9 🔗 Opinion piece by Andrew Ross, private equity and cross-border M&A partner at Marriott Harrison. #darktrace #privatequity #security #deal #growth #uk #investment #tech #UKtech

Keep your eyes on AlphaSense! We've just been included on Crunchbase News's list on companies they predict will be next to #IPO! 🔥🙌🏾 From the recent acquisition of Tegus and a $4B valuation, to our latest #GenAI offerings, it's been an incredible year of growth so far — and AlphaSense is just getting started! 🚀🚀🚀 #ai #technews #fintech https://lnkd.in/euvgEK3E

Back in April, Cybereason announced a $100M round led by SoftBank Group International and that Softbank executive Eric Gan would be succeeding Lior Div as CEO. At the time the public conversation was focused around the CEO transition and around reports by Axios, subsequently picked up by Meir Orbach in the Israeli press that the valuation was around $300M-$400M down from $3B in 2021. What wasn’t discussed was the destruction of founder and employee wealth. Since founding in 2012 Cybereason had raised a total of $813M. Much of that was from Softbank. When the valuation was slashed to a reported $300M-$400M a number of things happened. Firstly it would have triggered anti-dilution provisions, giving the previous investors a much larger slice of the cap table and significantly diluting founders and employees. If that wasn’t bad enough there was now $813M of preference stack on top of the ordinary shares.. in a company that was valued at half of the pref stack. As a quick and simplified reminder of how a preference stack works. In an exit, investors get their money first. IPO can be an exception, but a $300M company doesn’t IPO. All the wealth that the founders had built up since 2012 in over a decade was wiped out. The same for employees. It is not a surprise that Lior Div left. These are the risks of start-up life and holding a concentrated position. Image: Apeiros.fund

Nicola Sinclair really hits the nail on the head here. This quote is worth reading twice in my opinion: "I don’t want to be in a boardroom hoping that one of my companies will land another arms contract. I want to be in a boardroom knowing my companies play a role in deterring conflict. In supporting stability, so that companies funded by other VCs have the space to be amazing engines of change in sectors like climate, health and education. Maybe this conversation shouldn’t be about more VCs funding more weapons. Frankly many investors don’t have the experience or the network to understand which technologies will really move the needle." As someone on the "other side" of these deals as a co-founder at CulturePulse we're not just worried about fundraising and revenue, we also lay awake at night with ethical questions, and we should. I try and stay in my lane. I don't know enough about weapons, I know human psychology and how people act and react at scale in high risk environments. The AI that we've built has that knowledge built into its core. Having a board that pushes our core use and value, which goes to serve a variety of communities (and can include defense/security) is important. I'm happy to help where there is mission alignment with an MoD/DoD. I'm also happy to help where there is mission alignment with a Fortune 500. CulturePulse tech, particularly its ARES platform, is focused on conflict because we can lessen conflict, and if you EVER talk to a uniformed person, they will almost surely tell you with more emotion than anyone that they'd love more peace-tech, because uniformed people and their families are the ones who are most effected by war. So if my tech can help bring them home and help to end a conflict, and if the end of that conflict positively impacts the bottom line of our clients with complex supply chains or insurance risks, this is the kind of win I need to sleep well at night. For me, the fact that the same algorithm can help both, with very different industries, but similar missions, is where #dualuse meets the #deeptech #ai that we have.

First class compilation in order to keep up to date with the VC landscape

#SXSW24 starts in 2.5 weeks! I couldn't be more excited that Clearwater Benefits is hosting a Panel Discussion with CFOs, #Founders, and #VC Investors, "Financing Growth in a Tough Environment" for founders, business owners and executives of growing companies. Join us for a lively and insightful panel discussion on financing growth in today's challenging business landscape. This in-person event will take place at Capital Factory in Austin, TX, USA. Our esteemed panel includes Don Collis, the legendary CFO who led Dell Technologies to its IPO. Teja Yenamandra, founder and CEO of Gun.io will also share the stage. Hear from founders of thriving tech startups, and venture capital investors who will share their expertise and strategies for navigating growth through challenging financial terrain. Learn from the best in the industry as they discuss funding options, managing cash flow, and overcoming financial hurdles. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and network with like-minded professionals. This event will fill up and $0 cost seats are limited, so reserve your spot today! https://lnkd.in/gvQdiMU7