Would You Gift Your IPO?
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
Anthropic announced on Sunday the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund. It is committing 5% of its shares to a new entity, subject to stockholder approval, and the board can add 2% for every 50% increase in company value. The company is expected to list in the U.S. before the end of 2026.
Why This?: The listing would be the largest IPO ever for a public benefit corporation. Mission-driven founders and their investors from Silicon Valley to São Paulo will study how Anthropic shares its equity.
Positive Context:
- The fund is a wholly owned LLC rather than a 501(c)(3), which Anthropic says gives it room for different forms of giving. Its equity cannot be used for lobbying or political giving.
- The company is growing fast. Quarterly revenue reached $16.8B in Q3, up 45% from the prior quarter, and Anthropic told investors it was profitable on an adjusted basis.
Yes, but:
- Anthropic says it will share the fund’s structure, governance and valuation milestones in the coming months, so the most important details are still missing.
- Investors have discussed a valuation of about $1.5T, down from earlier expectations of about $2T. The company also has at least $518B in compute and infrastructure commitments over roughly a decade.
- Ramp's target valuation.
"“AI can create enormous economic value, but it may also bring instability to many workers,” Anthropic said, as reported by Dealroom News.
💰 Venture Capital
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Frontier / 44.01 (US / Oman) – $11.7M, offtake agreement. 44.01 runs a carbon-removal process that dissolves CO2 in water and injects it into magnesium-rich peridotite rock, where it turns to stone within one to three years. Frontier, the U.S. buying coalition led by Hannah Bebbington Valori, will pay for permanent storage of 20,932 tonnes between 2028 and 2031 at a UAE project, with Google among the buyers – The Investor Society.
Prism Data (US) – $20M, Series A, New York open-banking analytics company whose CashScore model reads bank statements to rate borrowers’ creditworthiness for regulated lenders. Story Ventures led, with FINTOP Capital, Core Innovation Capital, Obvious Ventures, 1st & Main Growth Partners and Mana Ventures. CEO Jason Rosen counts six of the top ten digital banks as customers, and monthly API transaction volume grew 100x in two years – FinSMEs.
Nexa (Brazil) – undisclosed amount, funding round, AI platform that builds custom “mini-ETFs” from fractions of assets such as credit card receivables and payroll loans, split into R$1 pieces. Valor Capital Group and Citrino Ventures invested. Founder Lucas Danicek says the company rejects 98% of the opportunities it analyzes, which is a company claim. Product issuance rose from 375 through August to 800 by the end of September – Startups.
🏛️ Private Equity
Forward Consumer Partners / Welly (US) – undisclosed price, acquisition of the first-aid and bandage brand from Unilever. The Greenwich, Connecticut firm calls it its eighth investment since its 2023 founding and its first in consumer health. Welly creator Eric Ryan, who started the brand in 2018, returns as strategic advisor and board member at closing, which is expected by the end of 2026. Forward’s Matt Leeds called it “a textbook Forward asset” – Business Wire.
Grupo Simpa and Grupo Tagle / Nissan Argentina (Argentina) – undisclosed price, takeover of Nissan’s local business as Nissan closes its Argentine subsidiary. Subject to contractual conditions, Simpa will hold 80% and Tagle 20% from December 1. The network has 21 dealerships and 65 sales and service points. Nissan stopped making the Frontier in Córdoba because the plant’s scale was too small – Bloomberg Línea.
Central Garden & Pet / Burpee (US) – undisclosed price, acquisition of the packet seed and young plant brand, closed on September 30 and announced today. Burpee was founded in 1876 and gave gardeners the original Iceberg lettuce and the Big Boy tomato. It will run as a separate entity in Pennsylvania under CEO Jamie Mattikow. Former owner George Ball called it “an unmatched, beloved brand in home gardening” – Business Wire.
📈 Public & Capital Markets
U.S. equities (NYSE, Nasdaq) – market close, with technology rebounding from last week’s sell-off over doubts about AI spending. The Nasdaq rose about 1.1%, the S&P 500 gained 0.41% and the Dow slipped 0.07%. Amazon jumped 4.95% and Palantir 4.36%, while WTI crude topped $103 after Houthi attacks on Saudi targets – TheStreet.
PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Yum! Brands (NYSE, Nasdaq) – supplier switch, beverages and restaurants. From January 2027, KFC will replace Pepsi with Coke at about 3,700 U.S. restaurants. That ends a relationship dating to 1986, when PepsiCo owned the chain. Evercore ISI estimates the loss could cost PepsiCo about $50M in revenue. PepsiCo shares rose 2.42% on Friday, while Coca-Cola closed 2.83% higher – Brew Markets.
📅 ICYMI
Victoria’s Secret went back to its old playbook at Sunday’s fashion show, with Kylie Jenner in a $50M Fantasy Bra (the first since 2018), and Wall Street liked it: shares rose about 4%, their biggest one-day gain in two years. Instagram posts about it nearly tripled from a year ago – Barron’s.
Startups still dream of Mars, though none has broken ground there or on the Moon. Cosmic Robotics built a 10,000-pound robot that installs 90-pound solar panels on Earth, and SpaceX pushed back its Mars trip to focus on an uncrewed Moon mission in 2027 – The Hustle.
Marriott, the world’s largest hotel company, owns less than 1% of its own hotels. It makes most of its money from management contracts and from licensing its name to franchisees, and it has needed reminders that it isn’t fully weightless: a lawsuit once forced it to buy the Sheraton Grand Chicago for $500M.
See you tomorrow,
Katherine Castelán & Jose Kont
The humans behind The Investor Society