IPO Window Reopens
After a long dry spell, the IPO window is cracking back open — and it couldn’t come at a better time.
Venture capital firms are currently returning capital to investors at the lowest rate in 25 years. According to Hamilton Lane, VC and growth equity funds have returned an average of just 8.2% of assets over the past three years — far below the 18.2% historical average since 2000, and even lower than the depths of the dot-com bust and 2008 crisis.
But recent and upcoming IPOs could change that.

🚀 eToro Goes Public at a Premium
eToro, the consumer trading platform, priced its IPO above range at $52 per share, exceeding the initial $46–$50 guidance.

• Shares Sold: 11.9 million (up from 10 million initially)
• Total Deal Size: ~$620 million (about half secondary)
• Fully Diluted Valuation: $4.9 billion

🏦 Chime Is Officially Going Public
Chime has re-entered the IPO pipeline, filing to list on the Nasdaq after briefly postponing in April due to market turbulence.

• Target Valuation: $10–11 billion
• Expected Raise: ~$1 billion
• Revenue (2024): $1.64 billion, up 31% YoY
• Q1 2025 Revenue: $519 million, up 32%
• Gross Margin (2024): 88%
• Net Income Q1 2025: $12.9 million (compared to a $15.9M profit Q1 2024)

🏥 Hinge Health Moves Ahead With IPO
Digital health player Hinge Health is also moving forward with IPO plans after filing an updated S-1 on May 5, incorporating Q1 results.

• Q1 2025 Revenue: $123.8 million (+50% YoY)
• Q1 Net Income: $17.1 million (vs. $26.5M loss in Q1 2024)
• Gross Margin Q1: 81% (up from 70%)
• 2024 Revenue: $390.4 million (+33% YoY)
• 2024 Net Loss: Narrowed to $11.9 million (from $108.1 million
  IPO Details:
• Offering: 13.7 million shares
• Price Range: $28–$32
• Proceeds Expected: Up to $437 million
  Target Valuation: ~$2.6 billion

AI Adoption: Breakthroughs, Setbacks & Strategic Shifts
April 2025 marked an inflection point in AI adoption, according to the Ramp AI Index, which tracks the integration of AI tools across U.S. businesses. From SaaS giants to AI-native startups — the momentum behind AI development is accelerating.

But adoption isn’t without complications. While some companies are doubling down on AI-driven innovation, others are reassessing its limitations in customer-facing roles.

🛠️ AI-Powered Product Launches
Figma | AI for Code & Design
Figma, gearing up for a highly anticipated IPO, is embedding AI more deeply across its platform. At its Config event, the company unveiled Figma Make — a tool that transforms text prompts into production-ready code and app designs.
The move signals Figma’s intent to become a full-stack product design ecosystem, reducing the need for third-party tools. New offerings now span:

• Website buildin
• AI coding
• Branded marketing assets
• Digital illustration
  The aim? To support the entire product design lifecycle — from ideation to deployment — within a single AI-enhanced platform.

Perplexity | AI Meets Checkout
AI search startup Perplexity is integrating PayPal and Venmo directly into its chatbot interface, allowing users to make purchases within the flow of AI-assisted discovery. It’s a new monetization path for consumer-facing AI tools — one that could shift how users transact through conversational interfaces.

Stripe | AI to Fight Fraud
Stripe announced new product launches focused on leveraging AI and stablecoins to fuel business growth.
Central to the update is Stripe’s debut of its Payments Foundation Model, a proprietary AI system trained on tens of billions of transactions. Unlike specialized models, it incorporates hundreds of subtle data signals per payment — aiming to dramatically enhance fraud detection and improve authorization rates.
Stripe plans to roll out the model across its payment suite. Early testing shows significant gains, especially against card testing attacks, where detection rates have now exceeded the 80% improvement Stripe had already achieved over the past two years.

⚠️ Pullbacks & Course Corrections
Klarna, one of the earliest and most vocal adopters of AI in customer service, is taking a step back. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted that while AI slashed costs — famously replacing the equivalent work of 700 employees — the quality of service dropped.
Klarna is now testing a hybrid approach, rehiring remote customer support staff to restore the human element. The message: AI is powerful, but not always a full replacement.

💰 New Funding Rounds: AI and Ops Infrastructure Attract Major Capital
Several major raises this month highlight where investor conviction still runs deep — AI robotics, employee ops, and data infrastructure.
🔧 Skild AI | $500M Incoming at $4.2B Valuation
Skild AI, a fast-scaling startup building AI foundation models for robotics, is nearing a deal to raise $500 million at a $4.2 billion valuation.
The company’s models enable robotic dogs and humanoids to perform complex tasks — from warehouse labor to home chores. Skild, just two years old, is already generating several million dollars in ARR, aiming for $30M+ this year. Funds will support expansion into robotics hardware, enabling a full-stack approach and improved training data pipelines.

🧾 Rippling | $450M Series G + $200M Tender
Rippling raised $450 million in Series G funding and completed a $200 million secondary transaction, providing early shareholders liquidity.
The platform unifies HR, IT, and finance workflows, positioning itself as the operating system for employee management. This round supports further product expansion and global scaling.

🛰️ Astronomer | $93M Series D at $775M Valuation
Astronomer, the commercial company behind Apache Airflow, secured $93 million in Series D funding.
The company is building essential data orchestration infrastructure, helping organizations reliably manage pipelines across hybrid and cloud-native environments — a growing need as AI and analytics workloads scale. Post-money valuation: $775 million.