Here we go.
At least it’s starting to look that way. Yesterday, Reddit listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the social media company’s stock finally closed up about 50% more. That would be an IPO start for the IPO market, but what if that’s combined with a successful AI IPO?infrastructure provider Astera Labs on Wednesday? Now we can get into the IPO races.
“Reddit and Astera IPOs are vital signs right now,” Andrew Saeta, CEO and chief institutional officer of Forge, said in an email. “They are the gatekeepers and if they make it, then the door will remain open. “
It’s knowing what will happen from now on, but the IPO market here and now looks much bigger than it has been in many years. And yes, let’s take a break. We’ve yet to see how Reddit, Astera, and the next ones fare in the coming weeks and months, so it’s likely to take a moment for this to turn into “we’re back, baby” territory. There is now evidence that the exit market is starting to break the deadlock.
“At the end of the day, IPOs that work well make money and that money is reinvested,” Saeta added. “It looks like this may just be the beginning of a new cycle. “
Still, some of this turns out to be specifically about Astera, Reddit, and AI. I asked this question to Craft Ventures’ spouse, Bryan Rosenblatt, who worked at Reddit from 2015 to 2018. He joined the company when there were about 50 employees and there, when the company grew from a company of less than $10 million to more than $100 million. As it turns out, the market has embraced Reddit’s AI narrative, right, Rosenblatt?
“Yes, because they legitimately have some of the most valuable knowledge online,” he told Term Sheet via email. “There’s an explanation for why so many people load ‘Reddit’ into their Google searches. He is known for generating maximum productive returns on the web on any and all topics.
When he arrived, Rosenblatt described Reddit as something akin to a “dystopian Craigslist. “I’m not sure exactly what a dystopian Craigslist looks like, but I’ll be sure to ask Midjourney in the coming days. Either way, it illustrates how Reddit has arrived at a time when the IPO market needed a win.
We’ll have to see what happens from now on. (The challenge with the IPO, of course, is that it’s not a one-day business. So you’re a public company, with state-owned challenges. )But, who knows, we may soon be in the race for the IPO. And I can simply be pessimistic: it is conceivable that the starting gun has already been fired.
In case you missed it. . . An interest rate update: The Fed signaled this week that it still plans to cut interest rates 3 times in 2024, but, as expected, has postponed this cut for the time being.
See you on Monday
Allie GarfinkleTwitter: @agarfinksCorreo: alexandra. garfinkle@fortune. comSubmit an offer for the term sheet newsletter here.
Joe Abrams hosted the offers segment of today’s newsletter.
ADVENTURE OFFERS
– Mirador Therapeutics, a San Diego, California-based precision medicine company specializing in immune-mediated inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, has raised $400 million in funding. ARCH Venture Partners led the circular and joined through OrbiMed, Fairmount and Fidelity Management.
– Loyal, a San Francisco-based biotech company that is developing a drug designed to increase the lifespan of dogs, has raised $45 million in Series B funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the circular and joined through Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Collaborative Fund. and others.
– Pandion, a Seattle, Washington-based network for delivering e-commerce packages to residential destinations, has raised $41. 5 million in Series B funding. Revolution Growth led the circular and joined through Playgcircular Global, Prologis Ventures, Bow Capital, Telstra Ventures, AME. Cloud Ventures and others.
– PocketHealth, a Toronto, Ontario-based medical token exchange platform for patients and healthcare providers, has raised $33 million in Series B investments from Round13 Capital, Deloitte Ventures, Samsung Next, Questa Capital, and Radical Ventures.
– Coast, a New York-based provider of expense cards designed for use in commercial fleets, has raised $25 million in investments from BoxGroup, Avid Ventures, Accel, Insight Partners, Better Tomorrow Ventures and Vesey Ventures.
– Curb51, a Paris, France-based company that studies biological mechanisms in cancer survivors, has raised €15 million ($16. 3 million) in seed funding. Sofinnova Partners led the circular and joined through Hitachi Ventures GmbH, Life Extension Ventures and others.
– Firestorm Labs, a San Diego, California-based manufacturer of unmanned aerial systems for warfare, has raised $12. 5 million in seed funding. Lockheed Martin Ventures led the circular and joined through others.
– Ediphi, a Boston, Massachusetts-based developer of estimates for entrepreneurs, has raised $12 million in a Series A investment from Norwest Venture Partners.
– Stress-Free Auto Care, a network of department stores for car generation services in California and Texas, has raised $11 million in Series A funding. Forerunner Ventures led the circular and joined through others.
– AirMyne, a developer of direct carbon-in-the-air processes based in Berkeley, California, has raised $6. 9 million in seed investments from Y Combinator, Alumni Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, EMLES, Impact Science Ventures, and others.
– Moondance Labs, the developer of application infrastructure protocol Tanssi in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, has raised $6 million in funding. Scytale Digital, KR1, and SNZ led the circular and joined through Arrington Capital, Borderless Capital, Hypersphere, and Blockchain Founders Fund. and angel investors.
– Cleric, a San Francisco-based developer of a freelance AI engineer for site reliability and infrastructure management, has raised $4. 3 million in seed funding. Zetta Venture Partners led the circular and joined through angel investors.
PRIVATE HORSEBACK RIDING
– Persistence Capital Partners acquired Neighborly Pharmacy, a pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario, for $1. 2 billion.
– Allied Industrial Partners acquired a majority stake in Celebrity Coaches, a Hendersonville, Tennessee-based transportation and logistics provider for live events and the entertainment industry. Financial terms were revealed.
– Greater Sum Ventures has acquired a majority stake in STRAX Intelligence Group, a live emergency response platform based in Boca Raton, Florida, for public protection agencies and personal safety organizations. Financial terms were revealed.
– KKR agreed to acquire a majority stake in Avantus, a portfolio of solar power plants in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, California. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Lead investor Rubicon Technology Partners, along with Galvanize Climate Solutions and Silversmith Capital Partners, have acquired a majority stake in Ascend Analytics, a Boulder, Colorado-based provider of energy transition analytics solutions. Financial terms were revealed.
OTHER
– Xponance Alts Solutions, a subsidiary of Xponance, acquired a minority stake in The Copia Group, a Chicago, Illinois-based investment advisor that provides debt and equity solutions to mid-market companies in the United States. Financial terms were revealed.
IPOS
– Boundless Bio, a San Diego, California-based biotech company that is developing treatments for patients with amplified cancers through incurable oncogenes, plans to invest up to $107. 1 million in $6. 3 million in inventory priced between $15 million and $17 on Nasdaq. ARCH Venture Partners. Fidelity, RA Capital Management, Bayer HealthCare, Nextech VI and Vertex Venture Management support the company.
FUND FUND OF FUNDS
– World Fund, a venture capital fund based in Berlin, Germany, has raised €300 million ($326 million) for its first fund targeting corporations developing technologies designed to decarbonize industries.
– Frontline Ventures, a venture capital firm founded in Dublin, Ireland, has raised $200 million in an expansion and seed fund for U. S. -founded business-to-business software corporations to expand into Europe.
PEOPLE
– Felicis, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California, has hired Gabriella Garcia as a business partner. Previously, he worked at Two Sigma Ventures.
This is the Internet edition of Term Sheet, a newsletter about the biggest deals and investors in venture capital and personal equity. Sign up for free.