OpenAI's new round
OpenAI has just set a new record, raising $6.6 billion in the largest venture capital round of all time, bringing its post-money valuation to $157 billion. According to The Information, OpenAI plans to use part of this funding to buy shares from employees, despite facing significant financial pressure. The company is expected to lose around $5 billion this year, primarily due to the high computing costs of training and running its large language models. While its revenue is growing rapidly, OpenAI is still far from generating cash, making every dollar of the recent raise critical to sustaining operations.

Employee share buybacks are a common practice among mature private tech companies like Stripe and ByteDance, which often use tender offers to allow employees to cash out. However, unlike OpenAI, those companies are profitable and don't need to rely on investor funds to keep the lights on.

This highlights the intense competition for top talent in the industry. Klarna, another Launchbay25 company, recently noted that a tech brain drain is the number one risk it faces ahead of its IPO. The race for talent is becoming as fierce as the battle for market share.

Q3 results for venture capital and Exits

Crunchbase reports that the global figure for invested venture capital was $66.5 billion in Q3 2024. The number was down 16% compared to Q2 2024, and 15% from the $78 billion that the company tallied for Q3 2023 global venture capital dealmaking.

U.S.-listed technology IPOs have slowed to a record low, even surpassing the downturns seen during the dot-com crash and the global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the venture secondary market is booming, with record-breaking fundraising, surging deal volumes, and exceptional growth. It has become a critical driver of liquidity and innovation for investors.
We take a deep dive into these trends in our State of the Venture Secondary Market report.

A seismic shift in software monetization

Salesforce recently announced a shift from the traditional per-seat SaaS model to a consumption-based pricing structure for its AI agents. This move reflects a broader trend among both public and private software companies adopting usage-based pricing for AI tools:
Intercom AI bot – usage-based pricing

• Zapier – add-ons
• Airtable – add-ons
• ServiceTitan – add-ons

This transition makes sense for enterprise customers and software companies. For clients, budgets will align directly with the value received, and measuring the direct impact of technology investments becomes easier.
For software providers it will allow to deal with significant variable costs of generative AI—such as computing, bandwidth, data storage, labeling, security, and compliance—which cannot be offset by indirect revenue gains alone.

Moreover, let’s face it: one more reason for a usage-based pricing is that AI has the potential to reduce the number of seats required.
For both B2C and B2B SaaS it means cannibalization of subscription-based revenue.

Check out these fresh examples from Launchbay25 companies:
Can AI Do Performance Reviews? Rippling Says Yes
ServiceTitan Expands AI-Powered Solutions for Contractors

Snyk's results
Cybersecurity unicorn Snyk grew its revenue by 50% to $220 million in 2023, while cutting its losses by 33% to $176 million, down from $267.3 million. According to the company’s Directors’ Report filed with the UK’s Companies House, Snyk reduced its headcount by 10% last year, laying off just over 100 employees, which brought its workforce to around 1,100 people and reduced the wage bill by 5%. The company had previously cut approximately 12% of its workforce in 2022.

On the secondary market, Snyk is valued at $6.45B, reflecting a 13% discount from its last primary valuation. Here's a comparison of its revenue growth and implied valuations against high-liquidity peers in the cybersecurity sector:

Launchbay Platfrom September Results
In September, the Launchbay25 Index rose by 9 points (5.3%), driven by strong performance from OpenAI, Neuralink, and Cerebras. OpenAI is nearing the close of a new primary round at a $150B valuation, Neuralink gained FDA approval for its new "blindsight" implant, and Cerebras is preparing for its IPO with solid fundamentals.
Check out more details