AltQ

Interesting Article in the FT: 📉 Private Equity Buyout Fund Management Fees Hit Record Low! Amid a challenging fundraising environment, private equity managers are making strategic concessions to attract investors: 💼 New Low: Management fees for buyout funds have fallen to 1.74% in 2023, the lowest since 2005, as reported by Preqin. This drop comes as fundraising pressure mounts. ⏳ Tough Times: Limited IPOs, high interest rates, and valuation disputes are slowing exits, leaving investors with less capital to reinvest into new funds. 🏛️ Market Shift: Larger funds are leveraging their scale by offering fee reductions across multiple strategies, while smaller firms are cutting fees to stay competitive. ⚖️ Investor Power: Bigger investors can negotiate better deals. For those writing checks between $25M-$100M, lower fees are more likely. 💰 Performance Fees: Despite the fall in management fees, carried interest remains stable at around 19.5% of profits. 🔍 Looking Forward: While private equity struggles, private debt is gaining traction with increasing investor interest, keeping fees more stable in this space. Read the full article here https://lnkd.in/ecAQACkZ #PrivateEquity #Fundraising #ManagementFees

Great essay from Sequoia Capital! A summary: 🚀 Two Years Into the Generative AI Revolution: A New Frontier Emerges 🔑 Key Milestones: As the LLM market stabilizes with players like Microsoft/OpenAI, AWS/Anthropic, Meta, and Google, the focus is shifting from rapid pre-trained responses (“System 1” thinking) to reasoning at inference time (“System 2” thinking). 🌐 Market Consolidation: The foundation layer is now dominated by hyperscalers, with pre-training compute well-understood. But the next frontier is inference-time compute, where AI models “stop and think” before generating responses—ushering in a new era of agentic applications. 💡 o1 & Inference-Time Compute: OpenAI’s new model “Strawberry” (o1) demonstrates true general reasoning. This leap is akin to AlphaGo’s deliberate search for the best move in Go, opening possibilities for AI to reason through complex, real-world problems like coding, math, and even creative tasks. 📈 New Scaling Law: The more inference-time compute you provide, the better the model reasons—paving the way for a new class of “killer apps” across industries like healthcare, cybersecurity, and legal tech. 🤖 Agentic Apps on the Rise: AI startups are no longer just “wrappers” on LLMs. Companies like Harvey (AI lawyer) and Factory (AI software engineer) are leading the charge by building custom cognitive architectures that scale reasoning capabilities tailored to specific tasks. 💼 Investor Takeaway: The most exciting opportunities lie in the application layer. As reasoning becomes more embedded in models, the potential for disruptive, AI-native businesses expands—targeting trillion-dollar services markets, not just software. 🌟 Looking Forward: Multi-agent systems and sophisticated cognitive architectures may define Generative AI’s next act. The race is on for that game-changing “Move 37” moment—when AI surprises us with capabilities that feel superhuman. #GenerativeAI #AIRevolution #VentureCapital #InferenceCompute #AgenticApplications https://lnkd.in/eQY5tWiY

🚀 Private Equity Reignites Software Buyouts: Smartsheet Deal Signals Market Shift 📊 Big News: Smartsheet, a leading work-management software provider, is being acquired by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners in a deal valued at **$8.4 billion**! This all-cash transaction reflects renewed interest in software buyouts after a two-year slowdown. 💼 Strategic Move: The offer of $56.50 per share represents an 8.5% premium on Smartsheet’s stock price. The acquisition could pave the way for further consolidation in the fragmented collaboration software space, with Smartsheet potentially integrating with other Vista-owned companies like Lucid Software and Quickbase. 📈 Market Outlook: A drop in interest rates is driving a 39% uptick in private-equity M&A activity this year. Software buyout volume fell sharply in 2023, but this deal could signal a comeback, especially in work-management platforms that thrived post-pandemic. 🌟 Smartsheet’s Success: Smartsheet’s subscription revenue surged 19% in Q2, with $7.9M net income, turning around from a significant loss the previous year. 🔮 Looking Ahead: As software buyouts pick up, expect more activity in this space as PE firms spot value in enterprise tools that drive collaboration and efficiency.

Excited to share this update from MetLife Investment Management!

🚀 J2 Ventures Raises $150M to Propel Dual-Use Tech Startups! 🚀 • Major Fundraising Achievement! 🎉 J2 Ventures successfully raised $150 million for its second fund, more than doubling its previous fund size and showcasing strong LP confidence! 💼 • Strategic Focus on Dual-Use Technologies! 🛡️ The new fund targets startups with applications for both civilian and government customers, emphasizing advanced computing, cybersecurity, telecom, and healthcare. 📡 • Strong LP Support! 🏦 Nearly all LPs from the debut fund returned, joined by new investors like MetLife and the New Mexico State Investment Council, highlighting continued trust and interest in J2 Ventures’ strategy. 🔝 • Government Collaborations! 🇺🇸 J2 Ventures helps startups secure government funding and contracts, recognizing the value of innovative technologies for #nationalsecurity. This dual-use potential is key to their investment thesis. 🔐 • Experienced Leadership! 🌟 Co-founders Jonathan Bronson and Alexander Harstrick lead a seasoned team with deep expertise in healthcare, defense, and technology, ensuring strong guidance for portfolio companies. 💪 • Growing Portfolio! 🌍 With 16 startups already supported, J2 Ventures continues to drive growth and innovation, proving their model’s effectiveness even in a challenging fundraising environment. 📈 🏥#VentureCapital #DualUse #LPConfidence https://lnkd.in/e7AhRW6m

#privatemarkets #exits

Great news in the Canadian VC ecosystem, Amplitude Ventures closed their latest Fund 🎉

Great to hear about the future of Indian PE is looking bright with NIIF taking a leadership role in supporting local managers - “Atmanirbhar Bharat!” 👏🏽👏🏽 #privateequity

A great post by Frank Rotman that talks about what we’ve been seeing for the last 12 months: Great to see this from such a visionary in the VC space: https://lnkd.in/ef3UXNeC

🎉 Exciting News in the Biotechnology World! 🎉 Merck has recently acquired EyeBio, an ophthalmology biotechnology company renowned for its innovative solutions. This acquisition marks a significant milestone, enhancing Merck's capabilities in delivering cutting-edge ophthalmic treatments and expanding its commitment to improving eye health globally. Congratulations David Guyer Sarah Milsom and investors like Bernard Davitian, Alex Badamchi-Zadeh, PhD Olga Danilchanka 🗓 Announced: May 29, 2024 💰 Transaction Value: up to $3B https://buff.ly/4dWMU0N