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TeamViewer gets hacked, Zuck’s multi-AI future, and VCs heart robotics startups

Author

Alex Wilhelm
June 28, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Top News

  • TeamViewer gets hacked: Earlier this week, we added a few cybersecurity-focused names to the TWiST500. Public cybersecurity companies have some of the best software valuations today, so the bets made sense—even more so now that TeamViewer has admitted to a breach of its corporate network.

  • Zuck sees multi-AI future: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sees AI models a bit like apps — we’re going to need and use more than one. That’s the takeaway from a recent interview the technologist held with a YouTuber. Zuck went on to dismiss AI labs that claim “they’re creating God or something,” adding that’s not what Meta is up to.

  • VCs are hunting for robotics startups: New Crunchbase data indicates that $4.2 billion was invested into robotics startups so far this year — which means that last year’s total tally of $6.8 billion should fall this year. But as TechCrunch’s Brian Heater notes, the most recent figures are “well shy of the COVID peak of 2021, which brought in $17.7 billion.”

TWiST500

To close out this week’s TWiST500 coverage, let’s recap the final tally of Webtoon’s IPO, the first company to join and graduate from our list of the most interesting private companies in the world.

  • IPO price: $21.00 per share, 15 million shares old (including $50 million to Blackrock), a $50 million placement to majority shareholder Naver, and a green shoe option worth a few million more shares.

  • Opening price: $21.30

  • First day close: $23.00

  • Where it is this morning: $23.81

What to learn here?

  • That tech companies with slow growth and modest profitability can go public. They can! And if they price intelligently, they can even appreciate post-debut.

What else did we learn?

The market clearing price for slow-growth tech companies is very low—so low that venture math starts to break for some companies. Perhaps lower interest rates later in the year will shake things up, but for now, I don’t expect many of the companies we add to our growing database of hot startups to roll off onto the public markets.

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This Week in Startups

E1973: On this episode of Liquidity, David Weisburd introduces Konstantine Buhler, Ana Marshall, and Jason, who discuss the challenges for new fund managers, the impact of VCs not raising new funds, and current market trends. They also cover topics like capital deployment, portfolio assessment, AI applications, and investment strategies for M&A versus IPO.

E1972: A busy news week with Jason and Alex back together to dive into the latest, including the proposed Texas Stock Exchange, and why more competition in listing locations could be a boon for founders, Circle’s pending IPO (that Alex loves), and stablecoins as a concept.

E1971: Jason and Alex jammed the news, going over the American immigration debate as it relates to startup founders, the future of air taxis (eVTOLs), the current state of remote work, and how one co-host recently wore a tie. On camera.

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