The Daily Dealflow

Alphabet's Best Trade Wasn't Search

Hi, and welcome to a new edition of The Daily Dealflow — the 5-minute briefing that gives you clear context on capital flows and market-moving trends across the Americas, from Silicon Valley to Buenos Aires. Let's dive in.

🏆 Deal of the Day

On Friday 15th, regulatory 13F filings confirmed that Alphabet — the parent company behind Google, YouTube, Waymo, and a wide portfolio of "moonshot" bets through its X division — turned a relatively small early-stage check into one of the largest paper windfalls in tech investing history.

Back in 2015, Alphabet invested $900M for roughly 4.9% of SpaceX, a private stake that sat largely unmarked on its books for a decade. That position is now worth approximately $94.2 billion, a return exceeding 100x, following SpaceX's record-setting $86.2B IPO in June. The disclosure puts a hard number on what had long been one of Silicon Valley's most talked-about "sleeper" bets — a bit ironic, given that SpaceX and Google's self-driving unit Waymo have at times been viewed as rivals in the broader tech ecosystem, per Reuters.

Why This? It's the clearest proof yet that 2026's record US IPO cycle is unlocking a decade of trapped private-market value, with implications for how funds think about long-hold venture bets.

Positive Context:

SpaceX shares closed Aug 14 at $140, up roughly 29% since Aug 5, after a bond offering targeting at least $20B.
Excluding SPACs, 2026's newly listed US companies delivered a weighted-average return near 16% — almost double the S&P 500's gain this year.

Yes, but:

SpaceX shed roughly $400B in market cap across a four-session losing streak, including one 16% single-day drop.
Alphabet faces post-IPO lockups and potential tax exposure before any of the paper gain becomes cash.

"A fresh jolt of buying last week when market fears about what would happen when the first lockup expiry arrived proved to be unfounded." — Steve Sosnick, Interactive Brokers, via Reuters.

💰 Venture Capital

Accel (US) – $3.5B, venture fundraise, four early-stage vehicles targeting AI and other technically ambitious startups across the US, Europe, Israel, India, and global markets.

Yuno (Colombia) – $45M, Series B, single-API payments orchestration platform connecting merchants to 1,000+ payment methods – Startuplinks

Whatnot (US) – $545M, Series G, livestream shopping marketplace for collectibles, fashion and trading cards – Fortune

Sequoia Capital (US) – $10B, venture fundraise, largest-ever commitment to AI and reindustrialization startups in manufacturing, defense, and energy.

Ume (Brazil) – $96M, FIDC receivables-fund raise with Itaú, Bradesco, Augme, Milenio, Verde and Credit Saison, consumer credit fintech – LatamList.

Mindgard (UK/US) – $30M, Series A ($42M total funding), automated AI security platform for shadow-AI discovery, red teaming, and runtime protection.

The chart highlights the sharp polarization of global merchandise trade balances in 2025. China stands out with an estimated $1.2 trillion surplus—far exceeding every other major economy—while the United States records an almost equally large $1.3 trillion deficit. Germany ($221 billion), Russia ($116 billion), Italy ($57 billion), and Brazil ($54 billion) also post surpluses, whereas the United Kingdom ($393 billion), India ($308 billion), France ($103 billion), and Japan ($18 billion) run deficits. This imbalance reflects the central role of export-oriented manufacturing economies—particularly China—in supplying global goods demand, while large consumer markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom absorb more imported goods than they export. **Importantly, the comparison covers merchandise only:** including services could materially change the picture for economies with strong service-export sectors, especially the United States and the United Kingdom. Source: Investywise.

🏛️ Private Equity

Thrive Holdings (US) – $2B, growth equity round, acquires traditional service businesses and deploys AI across accounting, IT, and regulatory operations.

Uber → Galgo (Chile) – undisclosed, minority equity stake, motorcycle sales and financing fintech operating across three countries – LatamList

LearnVector (US) – $100M, strategic equity investment, Andrew Ng-founded AI-native learning company building adaptive one-to-one agentic learning experiences.

Ecopetrol → Brava Energia (Colombia/Brazil) – ~$520M, controlling-stake buyout, oil and gas producer listed on B3 – Mayer Brown

Los Angeles Lakers (US) – $12.5B, acquisition, Josh Kushner and Bob Iger agreed to acquire the NBA franchise at a record valuation.

Kesh (Brazil) – $110M, equity and credit-facility financing, employer-linked emergency lending platform returning loan interest as merchant cashback benefits for workers.

📈 Public & Capital Markets

Opening Market Figures, Mon 17 Aug, 2026.

SpaceX (US) – $94.2B, capital markets valuation update, Alphabet’s 2015 investment reportedly appreciated more than 100-fold following the company’s IPO – Reuters

Berkshire Hathaway (US) – Q2 13F filing, portfolio-disclosure event, added Alphabet and The New York Times, exited Constellation Brands – Bloomberg Línea

Sovereign markets (Argentina) – country risk at 472 bps, fixed-income session, Merval closed flat with mixed dollar bond pricing – Perfil

Paramount Skydance / Warner Bros. Discovery (US) – $110B merger, deal-confidence event, WBD shares rose ~7.5% over eight sessions as market-implied close odds reached ~75% – Bloomberg Línea

📅 Americas Agenda

A curated snapshot of the most relevant events across the Americas, from Silicon Valley to Buenos Aires. Track where business owners, investors, and operators gather each week to exchange insights and build meaningful relationships.

Aug 27, 2026 — Beverly Hills, CA
Fireside Chat with Thomas Laffont. T4BH hosts Coatue co-founder Thomas Laffont for a conversation on private markets and AI, opened by Vice Mayor Mary Wells — Luma.

Aug 28, 2026 — San Francisco, CA
Open Source AI Summit SF (10th edition). BuildPlanet's half-day open-source AI seminar returns to The House by Edge & Node, co-hosted with NEAR AI; confirmed speakers include former Linux Foundation AI CTO Matt White and NEAR founder Illia Polosukhin — Luma.

Aug 30, 2026 — Chicago, IL
Padel Run | ARC x Good Rally. A wellness and networking morning combining a run, padel, and pilates sessions at Union Padel Club — Luma.

Aug 31 – Sep 4, 2026 — Boston, MA
The Boston Data Party Trivia Night. ClickHouse, Temporal, and PuppyGraph host a data-and-drinks trivia night at Trillium Brewing during the VLDB 2026 database conference — Luma.

Sep 2, 2026 — Mexico City, Mexico
Fuckup Nights: House of Fuckups. A storytelling night featuring fintech founder Fernando Padilla (Alifin.tech) among four speakers on startup and tech failures — Luma.

Sep 10, 2026 — New York, NY
StrictlyVC NYC 2026. TechCrunch's flagship VC mixer returns to the West Village's Ideal Glass Studios, presented by Collaborative Fund, with fireside conversations on community-driven business and consumer brand-building — TechCrunch.

Sep 15, 2026 — Long Beach / El Segundo, CA
Physical AI Pitch Night @ Beckhoff (part of SoCal Deep Tech Week 2026). LA Hardware Meetup hosts four hardware startups pitching live to a VC panel (Calibrate Ventures, Physical Fund, Tola Capital) at Beckhoff Automation — Luma.

Nov 5–6, 2026 — Queens, NY
The Outliers Summit. A two-day founder/operator gathering hosted by Ankur Nagpal and Andrew Yeung in partnership with AngelList — Day 1 tactical build sessions, Day 2 investor and founder mindset talks — Luma.

See you tomorrow,

Jose Kont
The human behind The Investor Society.

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