ApeVue - May 2023 Month in Review

ApeVue April 2023 Recap:

Private markets showed signs of life in May, as observed by ApeVue.  The most active 50 names in the late-stage secondary market recorded a 3.61% decline for the month. As it was last month, the worst performing sector of the year continues to be Entertainment, with Financial dropping lower as well. May saw several large primary rounds, such as Byju's ($250M) and Anthropic ($450M) which is a sign of confidence by investors in the currently slow moving growth/late-stage company primary market.

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ApeVue50 Index & Sub-Indices YTD Performance

ApeVue 50: -3.61%

ApeVue 50 Data: 2.58%

ApeVue 50 Financial: -11.94%

ApeVue 50 Entertainment: -20.64%

ApeVue 50 Blockchain: -1.90%

ApeVue 50 Food: 20.30%

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Peer Performance Reviews 

Peer Vue: ConsenSys 

ConsenSys is a leading Ethereum-focused software company which enables developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build applications, launch modern financial infrastructure, and access the decentralized web. They have drawn recent attention after submitting a recommendation to the UK authorities, urging them to prioritize the regulation of applications over blockchain protocols. As a market leader, they may maintain a key advantage in being able to keep ahead of regulatory, but the share price performance since their January (11% staff reduction) layoffs has not kept pace with other private company stocks which ApeVue track: 

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‍ApeVue ConsenSys Composite Pricing & Performance
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31-May-23: $36.75/share
3mo: -16.40%
YTD: -37.73%
1yr: -69.87%

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The alternate stocks in the ApeVue50 Blockchain sub-sector to note are Ripple, Chainalysis, and Kraken, while the broader Blockchain sectors would go on to include some further notable names, including Figure, Ledger, and Animoca Brands.

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Peer Vue: Airtable

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The jury is still out on Airtable’s adoption and growth, but the performance of the stock is reflecting the peaks and valleys which Zoom ($ZM) has experienced over the last couple years. With a software use case which has become more easily replicated by rivals’ suites of low/no-code solutions, this could be like many other tools touting collaboration and easy linkages between datasets.

The Series F in December of 2021 brought in some new money from Salesforce, Michael Dell’s MSD Capital, and Franklin Templeton (which most recently valued their shares at $147.03 on April 2023’s month end statement); to note, the ApeVue composite price on April 30th was $63.45/share.

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HISTORICAL PRICING & IMPLIED SERIES ROUND*
20-Apr-21: $106.98
07-Dec-21: $187.2845* (F)
19-Jun-22: $186.27
01-Sep-22: $124.85
31-May-23: $69.34

Implied Valuations
07-Dec-21: $11-billion (as announced)
31-May-22: $4-billion (using Series F implied shares)
31-May-23: $4.5-billion (using Series F reported shares)

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Comparing valuations has also been interesting on Airtable given there is a discrepancy in the number of shares implied from the most recent Series F round, and what has been filed publicly. ApeVue has implied that as of May 2023’s month end, the Implied Valuation range of the firm to be between $4-4.5 billion USD.

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‍ApeVue50 Bids, Offers, and Trades Volumes

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Breakdown of Sizing
Broker transaction and indication sizes vary, but what is useful in our data output is geared towards institutional clients with a focus on quality & consistency. Giving an aggregated "vue" of distributions across buckets, the sweet spot could be seen as the $10-to-25-million range (at right).

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Most Active Names Performance:

Other News:

^{Tiger Global considering selling portion of private portfolio}

Tiger Global is reportedly considering ways to liquidate a portion of its $40bn portfolio of private companies, hoping to return money to some of its investors by tapping into the secondary market. However, these talks are in preliminary stages, and potential buyers have suggested that valuing Tiger's private holdings could prove complex. These holdings include stakes in companies like Stripe, Databricks, and China's ByteDance. Below are several Tiger portfolio companies and their YTD Performance as observed by ApeVue. 

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Reddit marked down by Fidelity

Fidelity, the principal investor in Reddit's 2021 funding round, has cut the estimated value of its equity share in the prominent social media platform by 41% since its initial investment. The Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund's stake in Reddit dropped to $16.6 million as of late April, a significant decrease from the $28.2 million investment made in August 2021, as stated in the firm's recent disclosure. These changes come as Reddit's standing in the market raises questions; despite its previous intent to go public at a valuation of around $15 billion, these substantial markdowns create uncertainty.

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Byju's raises in May

Indian edtech leader, Byju's, is bolstering its financial reserves ahead of a highly anticipated IPO of its subsidiary, Aakash. With $250 million already raised from New York investment firm Davidson Kempner, Byju's is on track to secure an additional $700 million from an undisclosed sovereign fund, according to sources familiar with the matter. This funding will be part of a convertible note capping the startup's valuation at $22 billion, a figure Byju's has maintained despite widespread valuation corrections among global startups.

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