Weekly Unicorn News features current articles about private technology companies whose ideas are dynamically changing our world. Investors refer to these private, venture-backed companies, all or most of which are valued at over $1 billion, as Unicorns, due to their rarity and size. This week’s issue features LinkedIn’s list of the 50 most sought-after startups and articles on SpaceX, Pinterest, 23andMe, Spotify, Lift, and Infor. Click to read.
APPLETON, Wisc., Oct. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Endowment Wealth Management, Inc. has announced the launch of its EWM Unicorn Technology Fund. The private fund is seeking to raise up to $25 million to capitalize on what its management team sees as opportunities in the secondary market for private, late-stage venture capital technology companies. Such firms are often referred to as unicorns due to their rarity and size. The Fund manager will seek to build a diversified portfolio of companies that it believes may experience a liquidity event in the next 2-4 years. The Unicorn Technology Fund is currently fully invested across six such companies and the manager intends to add additional investments as the Fund grows. Read entire release.
When you return from the long Labor Day holiday, your securities transactions in equities, corporate or municipal bonds, unit investment trusts, and any securities comprised of these security types will be subject to a “trade date plus 2 days” ( “T+2″) shortened settlement, from the current”T+3”. Thus, any trades executed on Tuesday will settle on September 7.
The move harmonizes U.S. markets with most major international markets. It is also expected to reduce risk of trade defaults and streamline capital requirements for equity clearing.
The current T+3 settlement process has been in place since 1995.
To learn more about T+2, link to the T+2 fact sheet or visit http://www.ust2.com/.
The unicorn frenzy has slackened in the US when compared to 2014 and 2015, but still more billion-dollar companies are being created than are turning that valuation into cash for their investors. While several of these companies have completed successful exits this year, more value is locked in unicorn companies than ever before.
The 2017 Unicorn Report slices through data surrounding these billion-dollar companies to analyze trends ranging from step-ups to down rounds to exit prospects. Included in the report are detailed tables packed with the specific deal terms surrounding dozens of unicorns.
Click here to download the Pitchbook 2017 Unicorn Report: PitchBook_2017_Unicorn_Report
Four so-called “unicorns,” or private companies valued at $1 billion or higher, completed initial public offerings in the second quarter. That was double what was seen in the first quarter, and equal to the number of unicorn IPOs for the entire year in both 2015 and 2016, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs.
http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-unicorn-ipos-are-booming-2017-8
Early reporting data from schools providing endowment performance for the fiscal year ended June 30,2017 suggest that university endowments boosted their investment returns significantly over the last fiscal year from 2016. The median gain for all colleges reporting is 11.3 percent, while the median gain for larger schools (over $500 million in assets) was 13.3 percent for the 12-month period ended June 30th as reported by the Wilshire Trust Comparison Service. Comparatively, the Endowment Index® gained 13.47 percent during the period. Read the full article by Janet Lorin at Bloomberg.com.
Collectively, US unicorns are worth approximately $360B. Combined, these companies have raised just over $73B. To see the full list of US unicorns and associated data, check out the CB Insights blog.
The United States is home to 105 unicorn companies valued at $1B+. As of 7/25/2017, six private US companies are worth over $10B. The two most valuable unicorns in the US are Uber ($68B) and Airbnb ($29.3B). Palantir Technologies and WeWork, both valued at $20B, are tied for third.
Of the top four highest valued, only WeWork (which is based in NYC) is headquartered outside California. California has the highest unicorn “population” of any US state by far, with 62 billion-dollar startups inside its borders. New York ranks second with 15, followed by Massachusetts and Illinois with five each. Eight other states and the District of Columbia are also home to at least one company worth $1B+.
Using the CB Insights database and our real-time global unicorn tracker, we visualized the locations of every US-based unicorn in the map below.
KEY INSIGHTS ABOUT THE COMPANIES IN THIS MAP:
Learn about our Unicorn Technology Fund by registering here: https://endowmentwm.com/accredited-investor-signup/
Source: CBInsights
Hossein Kazemi, senior adviser to the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association and professor of finance at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, is claiming that many endowments should skip investments in illiquid assets such as hedge funds and private equity in favor of a multi-asset ETF portfolio.
Kazemi argues that most endowments should not attempt to mimic the Harvard or Yale Endowment portfolio mix by including a vast array of alternative investments, because few of them have the kind of access to top-tier managers that they do, which can lead to “pretty pricey underperformance”.
Kazemi goes on to say that smaller endowments should pursue a specific ETF mix that can provide a more stable return with less of the cost. This mix, according to Kazemi, should provide “similar exposures as a combination liquid/illiquid portfolio, minus many of the expenses associated with illiquid assets”.
In an article from the Wall Street Journal, Justin Lahart describes how the immense growth of Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, and Facebook has been propelling a substantial portion of the S&P 500’s gains.
The article also touches on how the S&P 500 Growth index has outperformed, while the S&P 500 Value index has under-performed. It goes on to discuss the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index and its inability to outperform the S&P 500, indicating that midsize and small company shares, within the growth and value categories, have been under-performing.
Given the fact that the stock market is currently driven by a small amount of stocks, it could be setting itself up for trouble. According to Lahart, “it might not take much for investors to suddenly pine for all the stocks and styles they have abandoned“.
