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Webtoon goes public, where VCs are looking for European bargains

Author

Alex Wilhelm
June 27, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Top News

  • Webtoon goes public: TWiST500 member Webtoon priced its IPO last night at $21 per share, the top end of its range. Alex notes that the company’s IPO pricing looks strong, but in revenue multiples terms, it’s not much. Still, with Cereberas and Turo waiting, perhaps we’ll get another few IPOs this year.

  • Coinbase sues the SEC: Crypto startups are getting a lot of coverage from Coinbase’s accounts, as the public web3 giant is using its capital to try force favor regulatory action for its sector. The Block reports that Coinbase is suing over Freedom of Information Act requests that it submitted.

  • Venture momentum in Europe: TechCrunch reports that comparatively low valuations and operating costs are making Iberian peninsula startups attractive to venture investors. The trend is being accelerated by newly launched funds in the region, including Plus Partners, which could raise up to $50 million.

TWiST500

Today, we’re removing a company from the TWiST500 list, adding yesterday’s proposed entrants, and investigating a few themes more deeply.

  • Off: Webtoon, which went public.

  • On: A whole grip of unicorns, including Huntress, Creatio, Farcaster, WEKA, Altruist, Clear Street, QI Tech, Cognition, Monad Labs, and Cyera. (For more detail on each, yesterday’s newsletter has the goods.)

  • Notes for founders and investors:

    • Crypto is Not Dead: Monad Labs and Farcaster’s recent rounds clearly state that major web3 investors are confident enough in their market today to mint new unicorns. The two companies could not be more different (Ethereum throughput scaling and social networking), but they share a blockchain foundation. Coinbase is getting its elbows out (see above), and Bitcoin is over $60,000. Are the animal spirits back in crypto-land?

    • Cybersecurity is generating unicorns: Crowdstrike is the public cloud company with the highest revenue multiple today (24.3x), and Zscaler is also in the top ten. These two cybersecurity companies show startups that if they get big in the sector, Wall Street may reward them. Enter Cyera and Huntress, new unicorns hoping that the public markets stay sweet on their underlying market.

    • Viva la vertical: Clear Street makes software for brokerages; Altruist is shipping code for RIAs. You could call these fintech companies, but vertical SaaS might be a more apt moniker. In this economy? With these public-market SaaS multiples? Yes, which implies that investors either expect vertical software companies to scale for a very long time or anticipate that public software valuations will improve.

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This Week in Startups

E1972: A busy news week at 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.

E1970: Dan Senor, co-author of "Start-Up Nation,” joins guest host Mark Suster. They discuss the impact of military service on entrepreneurial skills, the role of immigration, and cultural aspects that foster innovation. They also cover the challenges and future prospects for Israel's tech scene.

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