Stableton Financial AG

As insiders investing in the Top 20 pre-IPO tech companies, we've mastered the IPO process. Let us reveal it to you: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 There is a time when the company wants to create a liquidity event for its shareholders, so that they are in a position to realize their gains. The company then hires an investment bank as the underwriter to manage the process. At this point, we are still at least a year out from the actual IPO day. 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗘𝗖 Here, they provide detailed information about the company: business, finances, IPO details, etc. 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 That means analyzing the company’s financials, business model, and growth prospects. From this, they sketch out an appropriate initial share price and number of shares to be issued. 𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄 🛣️ To field test the results of step 3, the company and underwriters market the IPO to institutional investors. This provides crucial insight into initial interest and demand. 𝟱. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 The underwriters use investor feedback to set the final IPO price and allocate shares to investors who placed orders. This part is absolutely critical to determining success. If the IPO is priced too low, it leaves money on the table that the company or its existing shareholders forego. If the pricing is too high, the whole offering could fail or disappoint public market investors. 𝟲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗹 🔔 On the set IPO date, the company’s shares begin trading on a public stock exchange like the NYSE or Nasdaq. These first trading days have brought gains of 25% on average over the past ten years compared to the IPO price. And that does not even take into account the pre-IPO gains that private market investors can typically enjoy if they invest pre-IPO (and not at IPO or post-IPO). All clear? At Stableton, we believe pre-IPO investment is about to become much, much easier. You can find out more in Stableton’s Navigator newsletter in the comments below. #ipo #investing #top20

BlackRock’s acquisition of Preqin signals a major boost in access to private markets. As for Larry Fink’s ambition to index private markets, well, we have some thoughts: With Preqin, BlackRock believes it can index private markets. At Stableton, we think that’s a great idea. Indexing the entire market or sub-sectors drastically simplifies investment by avoiding manager selection entirely. But that still only gets you 30% of the way there. The real beauty of indexing includes two critical, yet challenging, aspects: 𝟭. 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Forgoing Fund of Funds investments (or even fund investments), and building more direct investments into companies, projects, infrastructure, or debt. 𝟮. 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁: Addressing the issue of liquidity and tradability to avoid significant problems down the line. This takes time, knowledge, and skill to implement. But the upside is enormous. How do we know this? We’ve been building a passive ETF-like product for Top 20 pre-IPO tech companies since 2018. We ensure our clients benefit from institutional-quality investments, product innovation, and improved liquidity through a commitment to providing superior access to growth equity and pre-IPO deals. That’s why we’re celebrating BlackRock’s ambition — because it means we’re on the right track! The future of private market investments looks promising, and we're excited to be a part of it. For more about what that future looks like, check out our Navigator newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ezPbVQae #blackrock #investing #secondaries #privatemarkets #indexing

Lightspeed Venture Partners is shifting further towards the secondary markets. Here’s what this change means for investors and the finance industry: Lightspeed spent $580M on secondary deals in the past 3 years. Meanwhile, fundraising by US VC firms hit a six-year low in 2023, while the value of investments slumped 30%. The takeaway? Investors are increasingly realizing that secondary transactions offset several of the shortcomings associated with traditional private market investments. In particular, secondaries allow investors to liquidate private assets before the company has a liquidity event (e.g., goes public), which is crucial when exit activities are becoming less frequent. Secondary trading volume grew more than 50% this year. It’s yet more evidence that what we’re doing at Stableton is only going to become more prevalent: Using secondaries to provide better and more innovative financial products that expand access to private markets (in our case growth equity/pre-IPO investments). Specifically, investing in a portfolio that provides immediate access to all of the Top 20 pre-IPO tech companies — always open, systematic, transparent, and zero performance fees. Currently, we are on a run-rate of 100+ secondary transactions per year. For more on how secondaries are changing the world, check out Stableton’s Navigator newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ezPbVQae #secondaries #investing #innovation #fintech #vcfunding https://lnkd.in/e8PfdS9s

The best recruiters are your own employees. If they’re not, you have a problem. 25% of our team members came to Stableton because they were referred by other team members. In one case, we had a four-person referral chain: One person recommended someone who recommended someone who recommended someone… That makes us very happy. After all, it’s a testament to employee satisfaction: Why would someone refer their friends or trusted connections to an employer they don’t like? These referrals convert to new hires at a high rate, which is not surprising since employees are often the best judges of whether someone they know would fit the existing company culture. We’ve said it before, but we are incredibly excited and thankful to have such a great team. This commitment by our people translates directly into our commitment to our stakeholders. We’re all 100% committed to empowering investors and shapers of tomorrow to achieve their full potential. Our contribution: A passive, low-cost, semi-liquid, open-ended portfolio that invests in all Top 20 global tech unicorns. We want to give more people the ability to build better wealth, live in prosperity, and have equal access to the best pre-IPO investments and beyond… The private market opportunity is huge! This is a trillion-dollar market, and we’re still not even scratching 0.01% of the market share. So here’s to growing our dream team of A-players even further. You can read more about the things we’re building together in our Navigator newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ezPbVQae #teambuilding #companyculture #recruiting #employeesatisfaction #scaleup

We had an incredible time at the IMpower Incorporating FundForum in Monaco! Our exchanges with top leaders in the asset management community and allocator communities were both insightful and inspiring. A special thanks to Fabio Peyer for inviting us to the Morningstar networking soiree. A key highlight was the democratization of private markets and the rising trend towards liquid and cost-efficient evergreen structures. The evolution of this asset class is exciting, and we at Stableton are at the forefront with our innovative solutions for accessing the pre-IPO market. Now, the real work begins. We had over 30 fantastic meetings with allocators and platforms from around the world and we’re determined to turn these connections into long-term partnerships. Stay tuned for more! For additional information, reach out to our Head of Institutional Business Development, Daniel Schieferdecker, or sign up to the Stableton Navigator for weekly pre-IPO and portfolio insights (link in comment below). #PrivateEquity #Fintech #IPO #AssetManagement

With Stableton you can invest in the most valuable Top 20 pre-IPO companies at once. If you want to try to do this yourself, here’s what you’ll need: 1. A clearly defined target portfolio Let’s assume you want to create a pre-IPO portfolio like ours. First, you need to define what kinds of companies you are actually looking for. In our case, we chose the Top 20 pre-IPO tech companies. The 20 most valuable venture capital-funded technology companies that are not yet listed on the stock exchange. The target portfolio is based on a systematic approach, independently defined by Morningstar Indexes, our partner with whom we developed the rule book. 2. Access to ALL these 20 companies Many think it's impossible. We prove them wrong — it is actually possible to acquire shares in these companies through secondary transactions. It is not yet perfect, as we are ‘only’ on the cap table of 13 of the largest 20 companies and the remaining 7 companies indirectly via SPVs. To be fair, it is quite an achievement. And the indirect positions via SPVs typically come without any additional fees. 3. A large amount of secondary transactions You will need this to maintain the portfolio. That means constantly investing new assets that the fund receives, managing redemptions, and rebalancing the portfolio from time to time. Expect at least 50-100 transactions per year. We currently manage 100+ secondary transactions per year, so good processes and technology are essential. 😎 4. Substantial experience Understand the market to match your fund’s terms with actual liquidity. This is necessary to prevent over- or under-promising. In our case, a 15% liquidity threshold for investors to go out per quarter is absolutely doable. 5. Have processes/policies/rules for everything If you plan to accept money into an institutional-grade fund, you must be extremely scrupulous about processes, policies, and rules, including the valuation of portfolio positions. So that means being clear (and cleared by the fund admin and auditor) about how the portfolio is priced. And that data is coming from external data providers to objectively validate the prices. And this doesn’t even cover all the transactions you’ll be working on, each of which will require substantial data, technology, and processes. 6. An entrepreneurial mindset What you’re doing goes against the norm in private market investments. Be prepared to evangelize. Constantly. And be nimble and prepared to tackle all the problems that may stand in your way. It is definitely not easy. Do these things, and in a few years, you could have a portfolio that looks just like ours 🙌 Or, if that sounds like too much work, you could put your money with us instead — for just a 1.85% management fee and 0 performance fees. Find out more about how we do what we do in our Navigator newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ezPbVQae #secondaries #investing #privatemarket #investment #preipo

A lot of people think pre-IPO investing does not work. They’re wrong. 4 of the biggest misconceptions we run into: 𝟭. 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲. We often hear: This is only possible if you are a leading global VC… or have invested 10 years ago. People still don’t believe us when we show them our portfolio of the Top 20 pre-IPO tech companies. They don’t understand how we can have exposure to all 20 of them. The simple answer is VC direct secondaries. Secondaries provide a way to purchase shares from existing investors. Existing investors generate liquidity while we get exposure to a high-growth unicorn. Do this a hundred times, and you can have a fund just like ours ;) 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟮𝟬 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗜𝗣𝗢 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲. In fact, it takes an average of 2.4 years for a Top 20 company to go public after its first inclusion. This means 2.4 years of compounding growth (and increasing company value) before we exit. Considering that the Top 20 companies grow 30-100% p.a. on average, we’d say this growth is pretty good. Buying secondaries also means we enter at a 20% discount or more when we initially buy our shares. When the company finally goes public, the scarcity of such great companies and their much faster growth have led to average IPO gains of 25% over the last 10 years. The winning formula: enter at 80%, compound for 2.4 years at 30-100% growth, and exit at 125%. Yes, the upside is very good. 𝟯. 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗜𝗣𝗢 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘆. This is just not true. Only 5% of the 20 most valuable technology companies have gone out of business in the last 10 years. The loss potential is low because these companies are established, well-funded, often profitable, and, as mentioned before, have huge growth. 𝟰. 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝘁 (=𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻) 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘀. We regularly also acquire preferred shares of companies through secondary transactions. They are typically not the highest-ranked, but still come with preferences. Also, because these companies are well-established and successful, the ratio of capital raised vs. our implied entry valuation is so small that there’s barely any difference between preferred and common shares. Once the company goes public, all shares collapse into one share class, meaning one reason for the 20%+ discount paid to sellers no longer exists. If you’re still not convinced, let us know in the comments or send us a DM. And subscribe to Stableton’s Navigator newsletter for more updates: https://lnkd.in/ezPbVQae #secondaries #investing #unicorn #preipo #top20

✨ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 | OpenAI's Major Partnership & Databricks Revenue Surge Welcome to this week's edition of the Stableton Navigator. OpenAI achieves a significant milestone by partnering with Apple, marking a major step in making AI accessible to millions. Databricks announces a remarkable revenue surge, reaching $2.4 billion by mid-year, driven by strong customer growth and innovation. Meanwhile, France's Mistral AI raises €600 million in a Series-B round. Stay tuned for more key updates and insights. 📧 Sign up to receive the weekly newsletter via the link in comments! https://lnkd.in/ddQ9Nswa

Democratization of private market access is an irreversible trend. Significant change is just around the corner. 👇 Gatekeepers of traditional private market investments — major VCs and private equity firms — have gobbled up other managers to concentrate more and more wealth into their one-stop shops. While these large giants have also started to innovate and push into the wealth channel, fee- and liquidity-wise, it is still more or less the same. And is not yet enough to solve the issue that excludes 60-70% of the world’s wealth. That is, family offices, wealth managers, banks, individual investors, and so forth. There is enormous demand for transparent, low-cost solutions that provide direct access to private markets. But how can this be done? This access can happen through utilizing the fast-growing market for VC direct secondaries. This is where existing investors sell to other investors. While super complex ‘under the hood’, it is actually possible to use secondaries to create an easy-to-invest portfolio that emulates an ‘ETF-like’ product investing in private markets. Getting exposure to well-established firms with strong growth prospects, and holding these like any other passive strategy. This is precisely what Stableton does. We launched the world’s first fully passive, low-cost strategy to give exposure to the Top 20 pre-IPO tech companies using secondaries. Disrupting an entire trillion-dollar industry is slow work. Our estimate is that we’re still about 2-3 years away from a major tipping point. That feels like a long time now — but in investing terms, it’s still right around the corner. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments👇 And don’t forget to sign up for Stableton’s Navigator newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ezPbVQae #secondaries #ipo #investing #innovation #privateequity

We think venture capital secondaries can make the world a better place. Here’s how: It’s no secret that venture capital can have positive impacts on society. As one of the main engines of the startup ecosystem, VCs: - boost employment growth - enable innovation - empower solutions to the world’s most pressing problems And yet, as much as we celebrate VCs, we don’t recognize that secondaries are doing a great deal of the work. In fact, secondaries are a crucial tool for pushing the benefits of venture capital even further. Consider just how many different groups benefit from secondary markets👇 𝟭. 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 Many startup employees are asset-rich and cash-poor. Part of their compensation includes owning stock in the company they work for, which is fine… unless they need something more liquid. Employees have to pay expenses for themselves and their families, pay taxes, and do all the things life requires. They don’t want to be dependent on one asset. Secondaries allow these employees to take some risk off the table. On top of that, the funds they earn through secondary transactions can empower them to go off and start their own companies or act as business angels — pushing the cycle of innovation even further. 𝟮. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 Secondaries give companies significant flexibility in managing where their capital is coming from. Through secondaries, companies can: - consolidate investors on a cap table - find new pre-IPO investors - test market sentiment - and attract new employees… …all of which speed innovation. 𝟯. 𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗩𝗖 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 VC funds are measured by their realized cash-on-cash returns. In order for them to raise the next fund, they must distribute proceeds to their investors. Secondaries allow these and other investors to liquidate at least some assets and raise new funds. This means they can invest again (and more), which (you guessed it) speeds innovation. 𝟰. 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 Secondaries decrease holding periods and increase liquidity, which attracts a broader group of investors: In particular, family offices, banks, wealth managers, and individual investors. This opens the private market to a broad section of global wealth that would otherwise be excluded from enjoying the benefits of the fast growth in this sector. We are witnessing a major boost in the entire VC and private markets ecosystem. And secondaries are thriving. We work with many great startups who are hustling hard to make the world a better place. If you are hustling in the space, too, let us know in the comments👇 And don’t forget to check out our newsletter for more thoughts like these: https://lnkd.in/ezPbVQae #secondaries #investing #venturecapital #vcfunding #innovation