Category Archives: venture

2019 Q1 Midas Club Watchlist

02 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by in ipo, MidasLP Research, pre-ipo, venture, venture capital

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The following companies are included on the Q1 2019 MidasLP watch list:

Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, Stripe, Flipkart, SurveyMonkey, Reddit, Cloudflare, Intercom, Automattic

LYFT

Lyft co-founder discusses future company IPO.

 

UBER

Uber receives 2019 IPO proposals from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley at $120 billion valuation.

 

 

AIRBNB

Airbnb Closes $1 Billion Funding Round

 

 

STRIPE

How Stripe Became a $10 Billion Challenger To Paypal

 

 

FLIPKART

Flipkart Walmart Done Deal , Xiaomi Plans Mega IPO

 

 

SURVEYMONKEY

Survey Monkey aiming to price above IPO range

 

 

INTERCOM

Growing & Scaling SaaS Businesses from $1M to $500M in ARR with Intercom

 

 

REDDIT

Reddit’s Steve Huffman talks IPO, why Reddit is the most authentic place on the internet, and more

 

MidasLP Releases Strategic And Valuation Reports For Facebook, Twitter, Zynga And Strategic Insights Report for Groupon.

08 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Headlines, ipo, MidasLP Research, pre-ipo, venture, venture capital

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MidasLP believes that Facebook has the opportunity to exceed Amazon in 2011 profitability and Groupon is on pace to became the fastest company ever to reach $1 billion in (calendar year) revenues.

MidasLP has announced the publication of several key strategic reports presenting an in-depth analysis of some of the world’s leading pre-exit (pre-IPO/pre-M&A) companies including Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and Groupon. The reports generally provide information and analysis of business models, scalability, product strategy, technology platforms, management team, shareholdings, board of directors information, investment rounds /series, valuation comparables, acquisition history and strategy, future acquisitions thoughts, competitors, competitive strategic analysis and preliminary long term valuation thoughts.

MidasLP will make its reports available directly through MidasLP.com and through SharesPost, one of the world’s leading online share trading platforms for secondary investors in many of the world’s leading venture-backed private companies.

Summary report highlights are listed below and research reports can be obtained by visiting – https://midaslp.com/midaslp-pre-ipo-research/

  • Facebook – MidasLP believes that Facebook has the opportunity to exceed Amazon in profitability this year. With a valuation of over $50 billion, Facebook is one of the world’s largest web platforms that helps people and companies communicate, socialize, understand, engage and transact more efficiently and effectively with friends, family, coworkers, employees, customers and relevant targets.  It is estimated that Facebook has as many users today as the Internet had users in 2004. MidasLP.com expects 2011 US display ad revenues at over $2 billion with global ad revenues of over $3.5 billion and total projected company revenues of over $4 billion.
  • Twitter – MidasLP expects Twitter to generate over $130 million in advertising revenues in 2011. With over 200 million users and 1.6 billion search queries a day, Twitter is an online social networking and micro- blogging service that enables its users to send and receive text-based posts called ‘tweets’ of up to 140 characters via Twitter’s website, SMS, instant messaging, or email. Twitter was valued at $8 billion in a recent funding round ($400 million) led by Russian investment fund DST.
  • Groupon – MidasLP and the Wall Street Journal agree that Groupon is “on pace to make $1 billion in sales faster than any other business, ever.” Founded in 2008, Groupon is the largest daily deal website that features discounted gift coupons usable at local or national companies. The company has sold over 90 million “Groupons” and has 142.9 million subscribers across 45 countries as of September 30, 2011.
  • Zynga – MidasLP expects 2011 revenues of over $1 billion. Founded in 2007, Zynga is the largest social-network game developer and has generated over $1.5 billion in cumulative bookings since its inception. As of September 2011, Zynga’s games have over 232 million monthly active users on Facebook.

Upcoming strategic insight reports include Gilt Groupe, Airbnb, Spotify, Dropbox, CafePress, The Ladders, Zend, LifeLock and Xora

For more research reports visit – https://midaslp.com/midaslp-pre-ipo-research/

To register on MidasLP.com for access to primary research information and diligence register at: http://investors.midaslp.com/ResearchRequest.htm

 

Follow or Contact MidasLP:

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 @MidasLP
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 http://www.facebook.com/pages/MidasLP/166498806761053
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 http://www.linkedin.com/company/midas-lp
Web:

 

 www.midaslp.com

 

MidasLP focuses on venture capital investments in the pre-exit (pre-IPO and pre-M&A) marketplace. MidasLP targets investments in the world’s best pre-exit (IPO, M&A) companies.  For us, the best companies have high gross and/or net margins, an enormous number of customers (often> 1 million customers or users), significant global growth prospects and limited competition. Examples of companies that fit our strategy include Google, Apple and Microsoft a year or two before they went public. Some of the companies that we invest in have more customers or users than the populations of countries like the United States, United Kingdom or Switzerland. In general, we target private companies that are vastly superior to many public companies.

IPO Task Force Issues Recommendations to Improve the Capital Markets for Emerging Growth Companies

20 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by in Headlines, ipo, venture, venture capital

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Report Provides Detailed Roadmap for Policymakers to Spur Job Creation

Today the IPO Task Force issued a detailed set of recommendations to re-energize U.S. economic growth by improving access to capital for emerging growth companies. The task force’s report, Rebuilding the IPO On-Ramp: Putting Emerging Growth Companies and the Job Market Back on the Road to Growth, provides policymakers with specific and actionable steps for increasing the supply of initial public offerings (IPOs) by creating an on-ramp for emerging growth companies and improving the path to an IPO through enhanced availability of investor information.

Comprised entirely of a group of private sector professionals, the IPO Task Force was formed in response to discussions held during the March 11, 2011, Access to Capital Conference at the U.S. Treasury Department. Kate Mitchell, chairman of the task force and managing director of Scale Venture Partners, remarked on the scope and practicality of the recommendations:

“The mandate of the IPO Task Force was to examine the root causes of the current U.S. IPO crisis and quickly develop reasonable and actionable steps that can restore access for emerging growth companies to the capital they need to create jobs and expand their businesses globally,” said Mitchell. “Our recommendations are extremely targeted, adjusting the scale of current regulations to ease the IPO process without undermining investor protection. Given the urgency to get America back on the path to economic growth, we need to get capital back in the hands of companies that create jobs. History tells us that emerging growth companies do exactly that.”

The IPO Task Force is sharing the On-Ramp report with the Treasury Department, the SEC, legislators, and the Administration, and will encourage them to use its recommendations to enact policies that effect meaningful change.

The Growing Crisis and Root Causes

During the past 15 years, the number of emerging, high-growth companies entering the capital markets through IPOs has plummeted relative to historical norms, transcending economic cycles and hobbling U.S. job creation. In its work, the IPO Task Force reaffirmed that a sequence of regulatory actions – mostly aimed at protecting investors from behaviors and risks posed by the largest public companies — have driven up costs for emerging growth companies looking to go public, constrained the amount of information available to investors about such companies, and shifted the economics of investment banking away from long-term investing in such companies and toward high-frequency trading of large-cap stocks. These obstacles, if left unaddressed, promise to stifle U.S. economic growth and jeopardize America’s global leadership.

IPO Task Force Recommendations

The IPO Task Force recommendations aim to bring the existing U.S. regulatory structure in line with current market realities while remaining true to the need for ongoing investor protection and increased investor participation. The three recommendations are:

I. Provide an “On-Ramp” for Emerging Growth Companies Using Existing Principles of Scaled Regulation. To reduce costs for companies trying to go public while still adhering to the first principle of investor protection, the task force recommends that companies with total annual gross revenue of less than $1 billion at IPO registration and not recognized by the SEC as “well-known seasoned issuers” be given up to five years from the date of their IPOs to scale up to full compliance. The scaled regulations are limited to those areas of compliance that are high cost and which do not compromise investor protection or disclosure. This On-Ramp status is designed to be temporary for the company and transitional, impacting only an estimated 14 percent of companies and three percent total market capitalization today.

II. Improve the Availability and Flow of Information for Investors. To increase visibility for emerging growth companies while maintaining transparency and consistency for investors, the task force recommends improving the flow of information about emerging growth companies to investors before and after an IPO. These policies should account for modern-day communications channels and practices by recognizing a greater role for research during the capital formation process, enacting modifications to existing restrictions on banking research, and expanding permissible pre-filing communications.

III. Lower The Capital Gains Tax Rate For Investors Who Purchase Shares In An IPO And Hold These Shares For A Minimum Of Two Years. Recent regulations and subsequent changes in related market practices have made it more difficult for long-term investors to gain access to emerging growth company stocks. From the issuer’s perspective, it is especially critical for emerging growth IPOs to attract such long-term investors at the initial allocation because that determines how much capital the company raises through the IPO. The capital gains tax rate has served as an effective tool for encouraging and rewarding long-term investing for decades, so this action would be consistent with current practice.
In addition to the recommendations above, the IPO Task Force will kick off an industry education initiative aimed at helping emerging growth companies become better consumers of investment banking services. The task force will work to increase the education and involvement of management and board members about the choice of the investment banking syndicate and the allocation of IPO shares. The goal is to efficiently connect the appropriate mix of investors to the sellers of emerging company stocks.

Call to Action

The IPO Task Force asserts that the On-Ramp recommendations are not only consistent with the spirit and intent of the current regulatory regime, but also essential to preserving America’s global economic primacy for decades to come. The group pledges continued participation and support of this effort to put emerging companies, investors and the U.S. job market back on the path to growth. The group is calling on Members of Congress, regulators and the Administration to support and enact legislative initiatives and regulatory reform that incorporate its recommendations so that the country can move quickly toward a vibrant and healthy capital markets system.

“As a country, we need to stop debating how to slice a shrinking pie and start working to grow the pie,” said William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School and IPO Task Force member. “A vibrant capital markets system is necessary for our economy to expand and the recommendations put forth by the task force offer a viable approach to address the challenges that are before us.  The future of the U.S. economy now hinges upon action – not rhetoric – and its time to move forward and take the necessary steps to smooth the IPO path for these companies which have proven to be critical sources of job creation, innovation and economic growth.”

A full copy of the report is available here:
http://www.slideshare.net/TENOR/rebuilding-the-ipo-on-rampfinal-slideshare

Summary slides are available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/TENOR/ipo-task-force

About the IPO Task Force

In March 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department convened the Access to Capital Conference to gather insights from capital markets participants and solicit recommendations for how to restore access to capital for small companies, including public capital through the IPO market. Arising from of one of the conference’s working group conversations, a small group of professionals representing the entire emerging growth company ecosystem – venture capitalists, experienced CEOs, public investors, securities lawyers, academicians and investment bankers –formed the IPO Task Force. Their report, Rebuilding the IPO On-Ramp: Putting Emerging Growth Companies and the Job Market Back on the Road to Growth, examines the challenges that emerging growth companies face in pursuing an IPO and provides recommendations for helping such companies access the capital they need to generate jobs and growth for the U.S. economy and to expand their businesses globally.

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U.S. Internet Start-Ups Think Social, Mobile and China – Jeff Richards and Jenny Lee – Voices – AllThingsD

04 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in ipo, pre-ipo, venture, venture capital

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U.S. Internet Start-Ups Think Social, Mobile and China 

  • Growth for Fortune 100 companies is coming from China, not the U.S. (or Europe). Case in point: Mercedes sold more S-Class sedans in China last year than in the U.S. and Germany combined. Mercedes sales in China grew 60 percent last year versus nine percent in the rest of the world. Even if you own large-cap U.S. equities in your personal portfolio, mutual funds or 401K, those companies’ main revenue growth is likely coming from China — and economic growth in the U.S. is hardly assured at this point.
  • Incomes are rising in China while remaining flat in the U.S. The Chinese middle class numbers in the hundreds of millions (100-300 million, depending on your source), with household income rising an estimated 98 percent since 2004, according to Credit Suisse Group. Even the bottom 20 percent of households saw their incomes rise 50 percent in the same time period. Contrast this with the U.S., where household income growth has stagnated, barely keeping pace with the rate of inflation since 1990. This flat-line income stagnation isn’t likely to change anytime soon, especially in today’s challenging economic climate.
  • The Chinese have money, and they’re spending it. Chinese consumers buy an estimated 12 percent of the world’s luxury goods, growing at a 30 percent clip per year, according to Barclays Capital. Spend a day in Shanghai, Beijing or Hong Kong and you’ll be blown away at the breadth of luxury stores in major downtown areas — and the number of shoppers crowding the shops.