VCA#050: Mind The Elevator

Why 30 seconds decides whether you get the next 30 minutes

Apr 26, 2026

👋 Welcome back, I’m Darío I study the world's top startups, VCs and family offices to document one thing: how the best actually operate.

📝 8 Expert Tips for Pitching to Investors

So you have a million-dollar idea. Naturally, you’re thrilled and ready to make your bold, big-time vision a reality — that much you’re clear on. What’s less clear is how, exactly, you’re going to get the funding you need to set your plans in motion.

New businesses generally can’t kickstart and sustain the momentum they need to thrive solely through elbow grease and power of will — they usually need some serious cash to get things going. So when you’re looking to push a bold new idea, business plan, or strategy that needs capital to move forward, you need to have some idea of how to secure it.

That’s why any aspiring entrepreneur has to understand how to pitch to investors. Here, we’ll go over some tips, tricks, and tactics that will help you pitch your ideas and business plans confidently and effectively. Let’s take a look!

→ How to Pitch an Idea to Investors

When you have that light bulb moment, it can be tempting to reach out with a couple of halfway fleshed-out ideas and a dream, but investors are too savvy and practical to bite on that.

They need to know they’ll receive a promising return on their investment — and ideas and dreams aren’t all that compelling when it comes to demonstrating that potential.

That’s why you need to consider these steps before you start pitching.

1. Tailor an Elevator Pitch

Seasoned comedians generally have something known as a “tight 10” rehearsed and ready — it’s a solid, reliable, short set of jokes they can count on to make people laugh. And while there might not be a ton of overlap between business and comedy, new business owners can still take a cue from that strategy.

New and aspiring entrepreneurs should have an intriguing, informative elevator pitch on hand — a 30-or-so second description of the nature of your business, offering, and value proposition, designed to help you earn a second conversation with a potential investor or network connection.

2. Narrow Down Your Target Audience

Preparation is half the battle when it comes to pitching — your efforts can only do so much for you if they’re not tailored to suit the investors on the other end of the table. That’s why you need to thoroughly research who you’re going to be talking to.

Take a close look at the other types of businesses they invest in and the degree to which they tend to be involved in those companies’ operations. Get a feel for how new they are to investing. And see if you can learn more about their individual personalities.

This step will be much easier with some firms than others. Many investors will have a lot of public information available, but several tend to keep their efforts and preferences closer to the chest. Still, you can’t skimp here — do everything you can to approach your meeting as well-prepared and thoughtfully as possible.

3. Market Research

One of the best ways to prepare an effective pitch is to have your market research done and organized. Being able to demonstrate an ability to compile, analyze, and draw meaningful conclusions from market data shows investors that you’re dedicated, incisive, and trustworthy.

It can make your idea seem sounder. If you can show that market trends are conducive to your offering’s success, you’ll make your pitch significantly more interesting than it would be if it was based on conjecture.

4. Create a Business Plan and Model

If you want investors to take you seriously, you can’t just walk in with an idea and nothing else. Even the most exciting concept means nothing without concrete plans behind it.

At the end of the day, investors are investing to make money — you need to demonstrate that you have the framework and courses of action in place to deliver on that.

You also need to give them an outline of the return they can expect to see on their investments. A sound business plan isn’t impressive if you can’t show accurate, attainable, intriguing results that will stem from it.

5. Prepare a Demo

Whether you’re looking to fund a physical product or digital services, prepare a demo and be sure to work out all the technical issues before appearing in front of investors.

Make sure the product model works as intended and any electronics or batteries are operating and fully charged. For digital products or services, make sure everything is in working order even minutes up to the pitch.

→ How to Pitch a Business Plan to Investors

Pitching an idea to investors goes hand-in-hand with pitching a business plan to investors, so always come prepared with a business plan when you want to pitch your idea.

1. Make it thorough and thoughtful.

The business plan will include the nuts and bolts of the business — that means providing a picture of what you are selling, the need your offering will fulfill, your target audience, plans for marketing and operations, budget, expected revenue, and any other market research data you collect. You want to be detailed and transparent when presenting your business plan, so investors know you have done the research and are trustworthy.

2. Show the data.

Explain current data and how it applies to your business plan, and be as open as possible. Share how many customers you currently have and how many new ones are coming to you each month or quarter. Discuss exactly how the business plan will generate revenue and how much revenue you expect to see, going forward.

3. Put a pitch deck together.

Once you’ve collected the data, it’s time to organize it in a clear, easy-to-follow pitch deck. Learning how to write a pitch deck is simpler than you might think. After compiling all the data for your business plan, break it down into different segments of the pitch deck, which can be presented easily in a slideshow.

You’ll start by explaining who you are, introducing any team members, and explaining the problem you want to solve with your business. Like an elevator pitch, you’ll share why your business is different from your competitors.

Explain the product or service, and include a pause to implement your product or service demo. Share your target audience, expected revenue model, and your budget. Conclude the pitch deck with contact information, so investors can reconnect later if they are interested.

Prepare to Get Funded

Having a brilliant idea is just the start of making your dream business a reality. Even before your company starts, you have to conduct research and make comprehensive plans if you want to attract investors.

The more research you prepare, the more confident and transparent you can be in your pitch — showing investors you are dedicated to knowing your business inside and out and helping them boost their ROI.

-- Paige Bennett, Freelance writer at Hubspot

💸 This Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds

💰 Startup Funding Rounds This Week

April 18-24 2026

🏔️ Growth & Mega Rounds

Safe Superintelligence ($2B, Growth): Frontier AI fundraising continues at sovereign-wealth scale as Ilya Sutskever’s lab secures its second mega-round in under seven months. Backers include Greenoaks Capital (lead), with prior support from Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, setting a $32B valuation.

Recursive Superintelligence ($500M+, Private): Self-improving AI emerges as the next frontier thesis beyond foundation models. Backers include GV (lead), Nvidia, anchoring the few-months-old lab at a ~$4B valuation.

Blue Energy ($380M, Growth): Nuclear power is being re-engineered for AI-scale electricity demand through shipyard-assembled reactors. Backers include VXI Capital (lead), Engine Ventures, At One Ventures, Tamarack Global, pairing deeptech specialists with infrastructure capital.

Mainspring Energy ($258M, Growth): Distributed generators are becoming the near-term answer to AI data center power constraints. Backers include General Catalyst (lead), bringing total funding to $813M as the company ships megawatt-scale units to U.S. data center customers.

🌵 Series D & Late Stage

Ray Therapeutics ($125M, Series B): Optogenetic vision restoration is transitioning from scientific promise to late-clinical execution. Backers include Janus Henderson Investors, Adage Capital Management, Franklin Templeton, 4BIO Capital, Deerfield Management, combining crossover public-market investors with biotech specialists.

🌴 Series C

X Square Robot ($276M, Series B): China’s embodied AI capital race intensifies around general-purpose robotics platforms. Backers include Xiaomi, Sequoia China (co-leads), alongside prior support from Alibaba, ByteDance, and Meituan.

Omni ($120M, Series C): Enterprise AI analytics is displacing legacy BI stacks as semantic models become the governance layer for AI answers. Backers include ICONIQ (lead), Theory Ventures, First Round Capital, Redpoint Ventures, GV, setting a $1.5B valuation.

Auradine ($153M, Series C): Sustainable Bitcoin mining and AI data center networking converge as compute-heavy industries seek efficient silicon. Backers include StepStone Group (lead), bringing total funding past $300M.

Glycomine ($115M, Series C): Orphan disease drug development advances into pivotal trials as specialist biotech capital remains active. Backers include Abrdn, Advent Life Sciences, CTI Life Sciences Fund, a deep rare-disease syndicate.

Attovia Therapeutics ($90M, Series C): Immune-mediated disease biotherapeutics continue attracting specialist conviction. Backers include Deep Track Capital (lead), bringing total funding to $255M.

AcuityMD ($80M, Series C): Vertical AI is finding defensible ground inside regulated markets like medtech commercialization. Backers include StepStone Group, Benchmark, Redpoint Ventures, ICONIQ, Atreides Management, pushing the company toward a $1B valuation.

Chapter ($75M, Series D): Medicare navigation scales as the senior market demands tech-forward benefits infrastructure. Backers include Stripes (lead), bringing total funding to $184M.

Cloudsmith ($72M, Series C): AI-generated code is creating a second-order governance problem that artifact management platforms are uniquely positioned to solve. Backers include TCV (lead), Insight Partners, positioning the Belfast-based startup at the center of AI-era software supply chain security.

Luma Financial Technologies ($63M, Series C): Structured products infrastructure for banks and brokers becomes investable as wealth-management tech consolidates. Backers include Sixth Street (lead).

🌲 Series B

Reliable Robotics ($160M, Private): Aviation autonomy moves from demonstration flights into certified deployment at scale. Backers include Nimble Partners, Eclipse Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, bringing cumulative funding to ~$300M.

Pulnovo Medical ($100M, Strategic): Cardiovascular intervention platforms draw strategic conviction from global device incumbents. Backers include Medtronic (lead), EQT, Qiming Venture Partners, Gaorong Ventures, OrbiMed, Lilly Asia Ventures, signaling product-level validation beyond financial upside.

Orkes ($60M, Series B): Agentic AI reliability becomes a real enterprise infrastructure problem as workflow orchestration replaces demo-stage experimentation. Backers include AVP (lead), Prosperity7 Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Vertex Ventures US, bringing total funding to ~$90M.

🌳 Series A

Hammerspace ($100M, Growth): Unified data infrastructure for AI becomes a priority as frontier labs scale training datasets across environments. Backers include Altimeter Capital (lead), bringing total funding to ~$157M.

Aaru ($80M, Series A): Synthetic research using simulated agent populations is compressing traditional polling and consumer-research cycles. Backers include Redpoint Ventures, bringing total reported equity funding to $88M.

Exaforce ($75M, Series A): AI agents enter the security operations center as SOC economics demand productivity multipliers. Backers include Khosla Ventures, Mayfield Fund, Thomvest Ventures, a mix of generalist tier-one and specialist security capital.

Tava Health ($40M, Series C): Behavioral health infrastructure evolves from marketplace into full-stack clinician-and-payer platform. Backers include Centana Growth Partners, Catalyst Investors, Blue Heron Ventures.

Syenta ($36M, Series A): AI chip packaging bottlenecks are becoming as critical as GPU supply as Australian deeptech steps into the semiconductor tooling conversation. Backers include Playground Global (lead), Blackbird, In-Q-Tel, Investible, with former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger joining the board.

Rivan ($34M, Growth): Synthetic fuel production targets the hard-to-electrify industrial layer of decarbonization. Backers include IQ Capital (lead), Plural, Fundomo, with total funding now at $46M.

ATMOS Space Cargo ($30M, Series A): Orbital return infrastructure becomes strategically relevant as in-orbit manufacturing and defense logistics scale. Backers include Balnord, Expansion Venture Capital (co-leads), European Innovation Council, OTB Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds, APEX Ventures, Seraphim, a pan-European space-tech syndicate.

UNIVITY ($30M, Series A): Space-based hybrid connectivity positions Europe in the global 5G-from-orbit race. Backers include a France 2030-aligned investor base, reinforcing European sovereign-tech support.

🌿 Seed

PNeoCognition ($40M, Seed): AI agents evolve from tool-style execution toward self-learning specialization. Backers include Cambium Capital, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Vista Equity Partners, a notably large seed syndicate mixing venture and growth capital.

Humble ($24M, Seed): Cabless electric freight haulers emerge as a clean-sheet architecture for autonomous logistics. Backers include Eclipse, Energy Impact Partners, pairing autonomy-specialist capital with energy-transition conviction.

Planetary ($20M, Series A): Fermentation infrastructure and licensing platforms emerge as the picks-and-shovels layer of the bioeconomy. Swiss-based company disclosed a CHF 16M equity round alongside a parallel credit facility, bringing total capital to ~$40M.

🌱 New Venture Funds

(April 18 – April 24, 2026)

Kinderhook Industries has closed Kinderhook Strategic Fund I at $1.1B, marking one of the largest dedicated strategic capital vehicles from the firm to date. The fund extends Kinderhook’s playbook of flexible control and structured investments across environmental services, healthcare, and automotive/light manufacturing.

Topspin Consumer Partners has announced the close of a $328M fund focused on scaling differentiated consumer brands. The fund reinforces Topspin’s thesis of backing founder-led companies in food, beverage, wellness, and lifestyle categories.

Lumira Ventures has closed Fund V at $200M, doubling down on its thesis of backing early- to growth-stage healthcare and life sciences companies across North America. The fund bridges Canadian and U.S. ecosystems, with capacity to lead rounds in therapeutics, medtech, and digital health.

DFF Ventures (formerly Dutch Founders Fund) has announced the final close of Fund III at $80M, oversubscribed within roughly six months of launch. The fund sharpens DFF’s thesis around Vertical AI, recommerce platforms, and marketplaces, writing first cheques of $285K–$2.85M into pre-seed founders building software for underdigitised industries.

Oncology Ventures has closed its Second Fund at $62M, backed by Texas Oncology and leading cancer care institutions. The fund is one of the few dedicated oncology-specialist VC vehicles in the U.S., focused on early-stage companies advancing diagnostics, therapeutics, and care delivery innovations.

Olea Venture Partners has launched with a $68M first close, anchored by the European Investment Fund (EIF). The Athens-based firm is one of the few dedicated healthcare and life sciences VCs operating from Southeast Europe, targeting early-stage companies across Greece, Cyprus, and the wider region.

Passion Capital has closed Passion IV at $55M, alongside two SPVs, fully backed by private capital. The fund extends the London firm’s 14-year track record of writing first cheques to founders in AI, FinTech, and Enterprise Risk across the UK and Europe.

Archangel Ventures has announced a $17.5M first close of its Archangel Ventures 2026 Fund, led by managing partner Ben Armstrong. The Melbourne-based firm continues its thesis of backing pre-seed and seed-stage Australian and New Zealand founders.

KRAFTON, Naver, and Mirae Asset Venture Investments have launched the Unicorn Growth Fund at $720M, described as the largest India-focused capital pool ever raised by an Asian technology-led platform. The fund will back growth-stage Indian startups across AI, deep tech, technology platforms, and digitally native consumer brands.

Speedinvest has launched its flagship MENA Fund, anchored by Mubadala, Qatar Investment Authority, and EIB Global. The fund marks Speedinvest’s first dedicated Middle East & Africa vehicle, bridging European operational expertise with regional sovereign capital.

Episode 1 Ventures has advanced fundraising for Fund IV, with British Business Bank committing up to $46M as cornerstone investor. The commitment reinforces BBB’s support for UK early-stage tech and gives Episode 1 significant capacity to back pre-seed and seed B2B software founders.

Fabrica Ventures has announced Fund 3, continuing its focus on late-stage B2B U.S. tech companies. The Palo Alto-based firm targets opportunities with strong unit economics and capital efficiency across cloud, AI, fintech, cybersecurity, and healthtech.

USVC has launched as a public venture fund built by AngelList, with Naval Ravikant chairing the investment committee and Ankur Nagpal serving as GP. The SEC-registered closed-end fund opens private technology investing to retail investors with a minimum of $500, with a portfolio that already includes xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Vercel, Sierra, Crusoe, and Legora.

Boreal Ventures has secured a $43M first close towards its $60M Fund II target, marking the Montréal firm’s second seed vehicle for capital-efficient Canadian B2B technology startups. Returning LPs include Investissement Québec, BDC Capital, Teralys, and Desjardins, with ex-Lightspeed President & CRO JD Saint-Martin joining as co-managing partner alongside founder David Charbonneau.

Lime Rock New Energy has closed Fund II at $640M, reinforcing its position as one of the largest dedicated new energy and energy transition growth vehicles. The fund will continue backing proven, capital-efficient companies across clean power, electrification, grid modernisation, and sustainable infrastructure.

Zero Shot has announced a $20M first close towards a $100M target, led by three former OpenAI operators — Evan Morikawa, Andrew Mayne, and Shawn Jain — alongside GPs Kelly Kovacs (ex-01A) and Brett Rounsaville. The fund focuses on applied AI and robotics, with early investments including Worktrace AI and Foundry Robotics.

💰 Who Got Rich This Week

April 11-17, 2026

📈 IPO Debuts (Priced & Traded This Week)

Yesway (NASDAQ: YSWY, $280M raise): The Fort Worth-based convenience store operator (449 Yesway and Allsup’s stores across nine states, known for its Allsup’s burritos) priced at $20 per share on April 21, debuted April 22, opened at $22 and climbed ~10%, valuing the company at ~$1.21 billion. This marks the return of the IPO after an initially-filed 2021 attempt that was withdrawn in 2022.

Who got rich: Thomas Trkla (Chairman & CEO, Yesway founder); Brookwood Financial Partners (principal PE sponsor); Yesway management team; Ted Pick (Morgan Stanley CEO, lead bookrunner); Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase CEO); David Solomon (Goldman Sachs CEO)

Liquidity: Partial realization for Brookwood after long hold; lockups restrict immediate secondary sales

📈 IPO Aftermarket Surges (Priced Last Week, Traded This Week)

Aevex Corp (NYSE: AVEX): The Solana Beach-based military drone maker priced at $20 on April 16 and opened at $23.01 on April 17, then doubled to close at $40.25 on Monday April 20, as the IPO was reportedly oversubscribed several times over. Class A shares briefly hit $40.25 on Monday, giving Aevex a market cap above $4 billion—double the $2.24B pricing cap.

Who got rich (paper): Paul Finnegan (Madison Dearborn co-CEO); Samuel Mencoff (Madison Dearborn co-CEO); Brian Raduenz (Aevex CEO); Aevex management; David Solomon (Goldman Sachs CEO); Brian Moynihan (BofA CEO); Rich Handler (Jefferies CEO)

Liquidity: Massive paper gain for Madison Dearborn, which retains 79.1% voting control; lockups prevent selling

Kailera Therapeutics (NASDAQ: KLRA): The Waltham-based GLP-1/GIP obesity biotech closed its upsized IPO on April 20 with full exercise of the underwriters’ option, bringing total proceeds to $718.8 million (up from the $625M headline). Shares opened at $26 on April 17 (up 62.5%) and were trading at $24.30 mid-week, giving Kailera a ~$3.24B market cap—over 60% above the IPO cap.

Who got rich (paper): Ron Renaud (CEO, previously Cerevel’s $8.7B AbbVie sale); Bain Capital Life Sciences; RTW Investments (Roderick Wong, 3.5% of NAV—139% markup); Atlas Venture; Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals (China partner); CPP Investments

Liquidity: Major markup but 180-day lockup limits selling; IPO closing settled April 20

Alamar Biosciences (NASDAQ: ALMR): The Fremont-based precision proteomics firm opened at $22.60 on April 17 after pricing its upsized IPO at $17 on April 16 (top of range, 11x oversubscribed), hitting a ~$1.5B market cap. Trading continued into the week with strong institutional demand.

Who got rich (paper): Yuling Luo (CEO and co-founder); Xiao-Jun Ma (co-founder); Qiming Venture Partners (19.2% pre-IPO stake); Peter Kolchinsky (RA Capital); Frank Sands Jr. (Sands Capital)

Liquidity: Major markup for Qiming and RA Capital; lockups in place

🤝🏻 M&A & Strategic Liquidity

QXO → TopBuild ($17B, April 19): QXO’s biggest acquisition yet—a 23.1% premium to TopBuild’s April 17 close making QXO the second-largest publicly traded building products distributor in North America. Brad Jacobs’ rollup playbook continues at a ferocious pace: $11B Beacon Roofing (2025) plus $2.25B Kodiak (April 1) plus this deal = over $30B in 11 months.

Who got rich: Robert Buck (TopBuild CEO); TopBuild shareholders (45% cash, 55% QXO stock); Brad Jacobs (QXO CEO & Chairman, billionaire architect); Apollo Global Management (QXO PIPE investor); Temasek (QXO PIPE investor)

Liquidity: Substantial partial realization for TopBuild public shareholders; closing expected Q3 2026

Eli Lilly → Kelonia Therapeutics (up to $7B, April 20): $3.25B upfront in cash plus up to $3.75B in milestones for the Boston-based clinical-stage biotech developing in vivo CAR-T cell therapies (lead program KLN-1010 for multiple myeloma). Kelonia had raised just ~$57.5M since its 2022 Series A, making this a generational markup for a small syndicate.

Who got rich: Kevin Friedman (President & CSO, Kelonia); Michael Birnbaum (scientific co-founder, MIT); Michael Fischbach (scientific co-founder, Stanford); Bob More (Alta Partners MD); Bryan Roberts (Venrock partner); Horizons Ventures (Li Ka-shing’s fund); David A. Ricks (Lilly CEO); Jacob Van Naarden (Lilly Oncology president)

Liquidity: Massive cash exit upfront (~60x revenue multiple on invested capital) with milestone upside

Blue Owl Capital → Sila Realty Trust ($2.4B, April 20): All-cash deal at $30.38 per share, a 19% premium to Sila’s April 17 close, taking the Tampa-based healthcare net lease REIT private. Sila will be delisted from the NYSE post-close in Q2/Q3 2026.

Who got rich: Michael A. Seton (Sila President & CEO); Sila Realty Trust public shareholders; Marc Zahr (Blue Owl co-president, Global Head of Real Assets); Doug Ostrover (Blue Owl co-CEO); Marc Lipschultz (Blue Owl co-CEO)

Liquidity: Full cash realization for Sila shareholders at closing

OpenAI → Hiro Finance (undisclosed acqui-hire, announced April 13, shutdown April 20): The AI personal finance startup (founded 2024 by Ethan Bloch) wound down operations April 20 with the ~10-person team joining OpenAI. Bloch is a serial exit-er: previously sold Digit for ~$230M and Flowtown for $4.5M.

Who got rich: Ethan Bloch (founder, serial entrepreneur); Hiro team (~10 people to OpenAI); Micky Malka (Ribbit Capital founder); Hemant Taneja (General Catalyst CEO); Restive VC backers; Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO)

Liquidity: Acqui-hire exit, terms undisclosed—likely small

🚀 The SpaceX-Cursor Option ($60B ceiling, April 21)

SpaceX ↔ Cursor (Anysphere) ($10B collaboration + $60B acquisition option): SpaceX announced it has the right to acquire Cursor later this year for $60B or pay $10B for joint work on AI coding. The deal preempted a $2B funding round Cursor was about to close at a $50B valuation (led by a16z, Thrive, Nvidia, Battery). SpaceX is delaying any acquisition until after its June IPO to avoid amending its confidential S-1.

Who got rich (if $60B buyout closes): Michael Truell (25-year-old Cursor CEO, net worth already $1.3B per Forbes); Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark, and Aman Sanger (Cursor co-founders); Marc Andreessen (a16z); Jensen Huang (Nvidia, cross-exposed via both sides); Josh Kushner (Thrive Capital); Battery Ventures; Elon Musk (SpaceX CEO)

Liquidity: Pending SpaceX’s June IPO, then option exercise decision—effectively a “$10B floor, $60B ceiling” outcome for Cursor shareholders

📈 IPOs on Deck (Imminent Listings)

Pershing Square USA (NYSE: PSUS + PS, pricing April 28): Bill Ackman’s combined IPO of his closed-end fund (PSUS, $5-10B target at $50/share) and the hedge fund management company itself (PS). Roadshow launched April 13. Ackman has already secured $2.8B in private placement commitments.

Who gets rich (pending): Bill Ackman (Pershing Square founder, CEO); Ackman’s existing Pershing Square partners; anchor LPs in the $2.8B PIPE (Arch Capital, BTG Pactual, ICONIQ, Menora Mivtachim); Citigroup, UBS, BofA Securities, Jefferies (joint bookrunners)

Liquidity: Pricing April 28; could be one of the largest alternative asset listings in recent years

Jersey Mike’s Subs (confidential filing April 20): The Blackstone-backed sandwich chain (3,000+ locations) filed confidentially for IPO. Share count and price range not yet determined.

Who gets rich (pending): Peter Cancro (Jersey Mike’s founder & CEO); Blackstone Inc. (controlling shareholder since its majority acquisition); Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone CEO); Jon Gray (Blackstone President); Blackstone funds’ LPs

Liquidity: Pending public filing and pricing

🚀 The Trillion-Dollar Pipeline (Active This Week)

SpaceX (confidential S-1 details revealed this week): Reuters reviewed portions of the confidential filing on April 20, revealing a dual-class equity structure giving Musk and insiders 10 votes per share. Targeting ~$75B raise at $1.75-1.8T valuation—potentially the largest IPO in history. June roadshow still expected. Private shares trading around $607 on Forge.

Who gets rich (pending): Elon Musk (enhanced 10-vote super-shares); Gwynne Shotwell (President/COO); early SpaceX employees; Peter Thiel (Founders Fund); Steve Jurvetson (Future Ventures); Luke Nosek (Gigafund); Roelof Botha (Sequoia); Antonio Gracias (Goldman Sachs)

Liquidity: Massive paper wealth pending June listing

Razorpay (confidential IPO filing expected in weeks): The Bengaluru fintech is preparing to confidentially file in India targeting $600-700M raise at $5-6B valuation—a significant step down from its 2021 peak of $7.5B but still one of India’s largest fintech listings.

Who gets rich (pending): Harshil Mathur (co-founder & CEO); Shashank Kumar (co-founder); Sequoia India (now Peak XV); Tiger Global; Ribbit Capital; GIC; TCV; Y Combinator

Liquidity: Pending SEBI draft filing and final pricing

💧 SPACs & Alternative Liquidity

Xanadu → Crane Harbor Acquisition (SPAC: $3.6B deal, ~$500M raise including $275M PIPE): Canadian quantum computing company progressing through 2026 listing on NASDAQ.

Who got rich (pending): Christian Weedbrook (founder/CEO); Byron Deeter (Bessemer Venture Partners partner); Ion Yadigaroglu (Capricorn managing partner); Chase Coleman (Tiger Global founder); Crane Harbor sponsors

Liquidity: Pending SPAC completion

👉 Find the latest LPs and HNWIs

🔥 Trending This Week

The VC Weekly news

1. Tim Cook’s succession finally confirmed — Apple enters the Ternus era After 15 years and a 10x market cap run, one of tech’s longest CEO tenures is ending.

Transition date: Cook steps down September 1, 2026; John Ternus, SVP of Hardware Engineering, takes over
Cook transitions to executive chairman, replacing Arthur Levinson on the board
Ternus, 51, is a 25-year Apple veteran who shepherded the iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro hardware programs
Apple shares fell 2.5% the day after the announcement; Wedbush’s Dan Ives called the move “mixed” for investors