WEBVTT - Instacart IPO Pricing and Klaviyo to Go Public 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:06.920 From Marhart where Innovation, Money and Power Collie in Silicon Valley, NBN. 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:11.760 This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hide and Ed Ludlow. 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.120 Live from Bloomberg's World headquarters in New York. I'm Caroline High. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.000 And Amed Ludlow reunited in New York City. This is 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:33.640 Blueboy Technology. 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:35.440 Coming our full IPO coverage. 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:39.040 You have Instacart pricing tonight as Clavio prepares to go 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:40.560 public this week as well. 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.560 Will bring you everything you need to know, and we'll get. 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.960 The inside look into the digital asset industry with Boxchain Capital. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:49.600 As the VC firm announces it's raise five hundred and 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.600 eighty million dollars for new funds. 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.760 Prus AI startup writer it raises one hundred million dollars 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:56.280 to further grow its business. 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.800 We'll have an exclusive conversation with the CEO. 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.320 It is an ip week. The New York Stock Exchange 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:02.760 and now ZAC are going to be busy. Let's think 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.520 about Instacart first and foremost, because it's finally set to 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.000 take that plunge into public markets, pricing later today, training tomorrow, 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:11.880 joining us now as Bloomberg's Katie Roofin. It's kind of 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.760 interesting timing. We don't often see IPOs price on a Monday. 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:22.319 Right, Yeah, it's it's kind of unusual. Usually they debut Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.440 and they praise the night before, so big ones. Yeah, 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:30.200 not typically on pricing Monday night, but hey why not? 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:31.920 Why not? Officially? 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:34.960 Maple Bear Inc. Is of course the name overall. 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.000 Oh dear, we just have some people walking in front 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.560 of the camera. It's Monday madness. 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:41.880 We're new to this particular studio at the moment, But 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.360 I'm interested in what you think. Ultimately, this is a 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.920 test of there's a test of interest for tech assets 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:48.480 at this moment. 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:50.840 But is it a test of kind of the pivot. 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.960 That CEO FGMO has made to focus more on sort 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.680 of an e commerce bellweather player. 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.000 Not just of course delivery. 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:01.840 Sure, yeah, I mean the market's looking at a lot 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:02.800 of different things here. 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:03.560 I mean, first of. 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.120 All, I think it's a big test of whether the 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:09.920 market cares more about profitability or growth. There's been so 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.000 much that's been said about why all these tech stocks 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:14.920 went down in the last few years, and a lot 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.080 of people are under the impression that public investors, public 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.840 tech investors care more about the rate of growth than 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.239 they did. They cared more about the rate of growth 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.639 before and now they care about profitability. So instacar has 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.560 a slowed rate of growth, but they've focused on being 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.120 profitable and they've been focusing on new business segments. 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.840 Remind us who's set to benefit. Who are the vcs 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.840 that back to curly so Sequoia. 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.680 Back to early and a lot has been said. You 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.600 know that there have been vcs that invested at a 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.160 thirty nine billion dollar valuation and that the top of 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.360 the range instacart might just be ten billion dollars. But 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.799 you know, i'd keep in mind that Sequoia invested maybe. 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:57.800 Around a dollar a share. 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.760 A lot of venture firms invested early, so I would 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.320 say the average cost per share was going to be 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.720 meaningful for a lot of vcs. There are some venture 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.240 firms that, you know, maybe invested too much at the 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.080 pre IPO stage. Actually a lot of them are like 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:18.079 crossover investors, like hedge funds like d One, although they 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.920 had invested in several rounds prior to the thirty nine 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.040 billion dollar evaluation as well. So yeah, there are some 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:25.400 investors that will be underwater. 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.000 Okay, we've branking it down for us. We thank you 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:30.880 and look, it's not the only IPO ed. 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.840 Yeah, yeah, look, I'm not making it up. It is 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.480 a mad Monday. Let's keep the IPO conversation going. Marketing 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.480 and data automation provider clavey O gears up for its 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.480 IPO joining us. Now is the man you saw run 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.560 across set. I've never met anyone as keen to break 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.040 news as Bloomberg's Ryan Gord, who's only a few weeks 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:48.960 into his time in the Bloomberg newsroom. 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:49.760 Clavio. Interesting. 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.720 Let's respectfully say that the names we waited for, it 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.640 was the less talked about. But what's going to happen 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:56.720 in the next twenty four hours or so? 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.040 Yeah? Do you know what's interesting? I think is that 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:01.640 you say was the one that was less talked about. 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:03.720 But actually, if you look on paper and think about 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.840 you know, size and profile, Instacard is very similar to Clavier. 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.360 They're both you know, pushing a nine billion dollar valuation. 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:16.840 Clavier has followed Instacart's lead. Just yesterday we reported that 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.320 they were looking to boost the IPO price range two 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.760 dollars either side of the bottom and top end, So 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.239 they're now pushing a twenty seven to twenty nine price range. 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.839 The SEC finning came out this morning, and I think, 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.200 you know, this just confirms what we what we learned 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.440 last week that you know, this is still a pretty 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.200 tentative time for markets, but you know there's been a 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.599 shot in the arm, so to speak for you know, 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.599 companies who are perhaps thinking, all right, we've got you know, 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.840 a good amount sort of backed up by cornerstones, both 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.080 in instacarts and Klavio's case, and so you know, let's 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.000 play it safe, let's play it smart. And they know 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.680 they're they're put they're pushing that they're going to raise, 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:53.719 they're raising their range. 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:55.320 Give me some of their names behind Clavier. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:57.400 Some of the existing back is in which banks are 0:04:57.400 --> 0:04:59.000 going to help us take this company public. 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:03.560 Yeah, so partners is behind Clavio. And actually eleven percent 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:08.159 of Clavio's revenue comes from Shopify. And you know, I 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:10.680 think when you start thinking about, you know, how does 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.840 the consumer respond, you know, what's the sort of retail appetite, 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.120 it's pretty interesting to think about the insights that these 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:21.320 these these guys are sort of giving us across the spectrum. 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.680 But I think, you know, I would caution and say 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.840 that Clavio and instagart are very different businesses. I think 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.160 it's probably good not to draw too many comparisons, but 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.239 you know, come come tomorrow, we would have had both, 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.800 you know, instacart pricing today, trading tomorrow, and then Clavio 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.320 pricing tomorrow afternoon too for trading on Wednesday. 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.919 There are some similar larities across all the IPOs of 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.479 having some cornerstone investors involved. But focus on the difference 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.080 for a minute. What is a marketing and data automation provider? 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.880 What what is Clavio up to from a business model perspective. 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.240 Yeah, I mean, you know, it's really getting down and 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.039 down into the weeds as to what people want to 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.520 or what they think people are interested in. How they 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.920 can better vie that those insights to those who are 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:03.800 ultimately looking to. 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:05.679 Make the most the most money. 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.240 You know, I think when you think about Instacart, it's 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.599 you know, grocery delivery. How do you provide them with 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.160 the best insights into what people are wanting to give 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.280 a moment And you know, I think even outside of 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.960 the IPO, you know IPO candidates, there are even quite 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:21.800 a few companies on the on the sort of strict 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.080 MNA side who are you know, exploring options so to 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:30.360 speak for businesses that are exposed to marketing, data, information services, 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.520 insights across the piece. 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:33.840 We're making us. 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:35.440 Buy the right thing at the right time. You need 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.440 data that wrangled, Thank you very much. Indeed, all things IPOs. Meanwhile, 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:41.120 coming out, we'll talk look. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.560 A bit more about the world of crypto to digital assets. 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.600 There's some fundraising going on friends, block Chain Capital General 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.280 Partners to go that his firms just raise five h 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:51.880 eighty million dollars in some fresh funds. We'll get into 0:06:51.920 --> 0:07:07.240 it as a remote technology Chinese fintech joint and I 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.840 was planning to unwind its investment in A and T Capital, 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.120 pulling back from one hundred million dollar fund there was 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.320 actually central to it's bet on digital assets. Anti Capital 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:17.640 is losing one of its biggest financial backers. It seems 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.040 unclear if actually the bench firm will continue to operate 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.840 or well snag a new key investor. But meanwhile, bucking 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.200 that particular trend and the down rounds and concerns about crypto, 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.240 we've got crypto focused Blockchain Capital joining us, who's actually 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.640 raise funds five and eighteen million dollars of them cost 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:35.840 two new funds. We understand one of the biggest raises 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.920 for the asset class this year, not just ever for 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.480 the bench firm in its tenure history. So please to 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.720 welcome to the show. Spenzer Boga Blockchain Capital General Partner, 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.600 and are you bucking a trend or is there more interest, 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.360 more LP interest in coming into crypto. 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.320 There's certainly plenty of LP interests. 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.360 Listen, we're doing what we've always done, which is continue 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.200 to double down on the industry. 0:07:58.240 --> 0:07:59.680 That we have long term conviction in. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.040 The middle of a bear market, and so we're looking 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.880 forward to to deploy this capital into some fresh opportunities. 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.880 Okay, so talk about the fresh opportunities. Where in the 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.200 space do you think that valuations aren't elevated, that people 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.480 are really proving some disruption in this moment. 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.000 Sure, so we see opportunities at both the early stage 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:18.080 and the later stage. 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.680 You know, if we go back to twenty twenty to 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:22.520 twenty twenty two, I'd. 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:26.640 Say that the industry was mostly characterized by an influx 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.800 of new large allocators that were deploying very large sums 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.840 of capital to the mid and late stage segment. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:34.120 Of the market. 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.600 All of those capital allocators have walked off the playing field. 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.560 Right, they're no longer active in the industry. But meanwhile, 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:42.160 during this. 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.920 Last kind of market cycle that we saw from twenty 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.280 twenty to twenty twenty two, we did have a lot 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.960 of early stage companies that were funded, and a few 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:51.839 of those are growing up into that kind of mid 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:52.800 stage of the market. 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:54.679 And that's what we're keeping a close eye on. 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:56.959 Because I just want to check some of the mechanics 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:58.840 with you, because you guys already had two billion dollars 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.960 of assets, right, is it that that capito had already 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.680 been committed and now you're bringing new funds because you've 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.920 got opportunities to write new checks. 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.440 Correct, So our assets under management grew to two billion 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.800 over the past decade that we've been doing this. So 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:15.600 we're now to pointing capital out of our sixth to 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.679 early stage fund and again our first opportunity fund, so 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:20.120 that's doing Series B in later. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.640 Okay, so that two billion came from the prior five funds. 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:27.360 The focus decentralized finance and gaming. Just explain how the 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.760 focus of the sort of target startups changed. 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:31.359 Then with this new fund. 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:34.360 You know, it continues to cover a lot of the 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.960 opportunities in the space, but I'd say early on in 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:40.280 our first fund vintages, we're really focused on, if you 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.600 think from a sequencing perspective, which opportunities. 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:43.880 Need to work first. 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.520 And that's largely thinking about things that we broadly bucket 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:48.960 under centralized finance. 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.760 So these are largely on ramps right and off ramps. 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.520 So it's things like coinbase and crack and bitco anchorage, 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.960 you know, the largest exchanges and custodians, because nothing else 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.199 can really work unless you have robust, reliable on ramps 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:03.880 and off ranks. 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:06.760 Now, over time we've blended and moved. 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.200 More towards the I characterized them maybe as more crypto 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:15.800 native opportunities. So these are things like decentralized infrastructure, decentralized finance, 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.240 and then especially gaming has been on the horizon for 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.320 the past couple of years and we've made a select 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:21.840 few investments in that category. 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.920 I'm just interested in aside from the investments you're making. 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:27.800 You had an interesting ton of phrase. 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.440 You said, these big players who are adding big checks 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.880 have walked off the field. I mean a systems still 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:35.599 out there with a massive crypto fund. I think a 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:37.800 Katie Hahn. I mean these players are not writing checks 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.040 at the moment, Are they not deploying the capital they raised? 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.320 No, those are not the large allocators that I'm thinking of. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.560 So I think most of the crypto native investors have 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.439 stayed true to the industry and continue to deploy capital. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:50.439 The ones that I'm thinking about are more of the 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.880 large late stage private equity or hedge funds even that 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:58.960 were building some pockets of illquid private investments. Several of 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:00.840 them kind of came in and they said, listen, we 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:02.720 have zero percent exposure to this sector. 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:04.440 We'd like to get it up to ten percent in 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.360 a twelve month period. And naturally that. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:12.960 Resulted in clearing prices that were above and beyond our appetite. 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:15.640 That has though been still this potion pull, this tension 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.440 of institutional appetite when we think about more broadly a 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:23.480 spot etf for bitcoin, but then at the same time 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.000 nervousness from institutional money, from all the guard money because 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.480 of ultimately regulation, particularly here in the US. 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:29.959 How is that. 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.839 Affecting startups, founders, the companies that are managing to scale 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:34.319 at the moment. 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.640 Look, I think across whether it's the large institutional allocators 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.760 that are looking at the space or its early stage 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:42.960 startup founders. I think they're looking at the same thing, 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.080 which is the actual metrics on the ground. 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.679 So, yes, it is a bear market. Yes it's a 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.080 so called crypto winter and the industry speak. 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:52.880 But if you look at the numbers on the ground, 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.880 we've seen stable coins process over six trillion dollars of 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.520 volume in the past twelve months alone, and that's accounting 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.760 only for transactions in the Ethereum network. If we expanded, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.880 it'd probably be closer to nine or ten trillion. That's 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.440 just stable coins. Within DeFi, We've got seven hundred million 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:14.880 dollars of protocol revenue that's been generated by these DeFi applications. 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.400 We've got seven hundred billion dollars of volume going across 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.280 decentralized exchanges in the past twelve months. All of which 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.520 is to say that actually, on the ground, there's a 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.040 lot of healthy things happening. It is not the way 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.000 that I think most people perceive it that in these 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.800 bear markets or crypto winters, that activity just disappears. 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.560 Suspends it a little quickly about gaming, and when I think 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:39.880 about the use of blockchaining gaming, it's about monetizing right 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:44.440 in game customization, skins, character shares. Is it limited to 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.320 that though the opportunities you see so no, it's. 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.199 Not limited to that. I would largely characterize the opportunity. 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.040 In gaming is the same as most of the applications 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.840 of blockchain technology, which is to put users at the 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:57.760 center and to disintermediate some of. 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.240 The economics associated with it. 0:12:59.880 --> 0:13:02.400 The case of gaming, we have, you know, tens of 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.760 millions of people around the world that invest maybe dozens 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.880 or not hundreds of hours a week into acquiring. 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:09.400 In game assets. 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.080 They spend their time, they spend their money to acquire 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.520 these assets, and the promise from a lot of these 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.720 blockchain startups is that within a gaming context, they can 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.160 give users actual ownership of these assets in the same 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:22.960 way that they would in the real world or the 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:23.640 physical world. 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.040 Spencer Bogot Blockchain Capital always good to catch up and 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:33.199 have you on the shape. 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:37.400 Time for talking tech and first up. 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.160 Bob van Dyke, CEO of Process, is stepping down from 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.680 his role is head of the tech investment firm Vendi. 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.240 Will remain as a consultant to the board and its 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.840 parently company, Naspers until the end of September twenty twenty four. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.360 His departure comes after a complicated shareholder structure that was 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:56.360 highly criticized by some investors and government regulators, and Ali 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.680 Baba's unveiling plans to beef up its investments in Turkey. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.320 A meeting Friday with Turkey's President Erdawan, the Chinese internet 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.880 company pledged two billion dollars. Ali Baba has already invested 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.640 over one billion dollars through its Turkish unit, Trendill, Turkey's 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.720 biggest e commerce platform. Plus investment firm KKR has agreed 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.559 to buy twenty percent of Singapore Telecommunications Regional Data Center 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.080 business for more than eight hundred million US Singapore's largest 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.720 telecoms provider. We use the capitol to bankroll in expansion 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.760 across Southeast age to The deal also allows KKR to 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.560 take up to two seats on the unit's board, further 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.320 expanding its rees into the server and networks that power 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.920 the Internet. Now, speaking of investing, ours, official intelligence startup 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.320 Writer is planning to invest more in its AI models. 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.120 Writers raised one hundred million dollars in a Series B round, 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.120 the round valuing the company at more than five hundred 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:51.160 million dollars, joining US now from San Francisco. Writers CEO 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:54.800 and co founder may have been been may very simple 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:56.920 question to start for it start with what do you 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:57.920 use those funds for? 0:14:58.800 --> 0:14:59.000 Oh? 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.560 Thanks so much, Ed, great to be here. While we're 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:05.000 using the funds to further invest in our large language 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:10.480 model technologies and our full stack generative AI platform. Enterprises 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.120 are ready to move from you know, all the talk 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.920 of the promise of generative AI to real impactful applications 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.120 they can put into production. And we're going to keep 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:20.600 beefing up our platform to do that. 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.520 Talk about real impactful revenue for you as well, because 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.320 there is so much optimism, dare I say hype around 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:29.960 how much revenue this is going to bring in for 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:31.480 the key public companies already? 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.440 What about you? What are you seeing in times of growth? 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:34.480 Oh? 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.160 Thanks so much, Caroline. So we are four x, you 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.880 know since the beginning of the year, so absolutely an 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.080 influx of folks who you know, have gotten their hands 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.560 already working with large language models, but are kind of 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.200 stuck in poc purgatar, you know, proofs of concepts that 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:51.880 don't make it to production. And so we succeed and 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.160 our customers succeed when we can really help them realize 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:59.600 that promise building applications that people actually use that involve 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:03.240 you know, their data and are secure and their environments. 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:08.120 And their employees becoming ultimately more productive. May this comes 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.560 at a tough time, doesn't it, just from the mentality 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:13.960 of yes's productivity to be had. But boy, or we 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.560 worried about the dislocation, the disruption it caused for labor 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:19.680 in particularly, I'm thinking the strikes happening over on the 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.240 West coast down here on the East coast for writers, 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:24.720 for actors AI as a worry there. How much are 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.040 you thinking you might end up displacing workers. 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.320 Yeah, it was a big concern of a lot of 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.000 the executives that you know took a chance on us 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:38.400 and executives who have joined this round, customers like Vanguard 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:42.160 and Loreal and Eccentria, And you know, those executives aren't 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:46.000 there promoting AI to displace jobs at all. We're really 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.880 all in concert to help transform work, to make it 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:53.400 more creative, more interesting, and really take away the kind 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.720 of cognitive manual labor in a lot of these workflows. 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.000 So you know, I would say we're quite different in 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.760 that regard in the way that writer is use case 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.960 based and workflow based people are the heart of making 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:06.119 generative AI work. 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.720 May you've got that access to capital, but I think 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.040 I'm right saying you're also in the h one hundred club, 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.040 aren't you. How important is it to have that compute 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.120 access you have a cluster in the thousands. 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.800 I think I'm right in saying so. 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.639 Nvidia is a close partner. They're a customer of Writer 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.239 as well. You know, we really wouldn't be where we 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.080 are if we didn't have that partnership. And I think, 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.200 you know, very importantly a philosophy of smaller models are 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.000 more agile, they're easier to manage, they're easier for our 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.280 customers to put in their virtual private clouds. And you know, 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:39.840 bigger isn't always better. 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.240 That is a good point you raised, Caroline, and I 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.560 have covered a lot of these raises foundation models that 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.760 are raising increments of hundreds of millions and at high valuation. 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.199 And do you worry about the sort of hype around it? 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.280 Do you think that your own valuation was fair in 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.200 this round in terms of your potential? 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:04.000 Yeah, Ed, we could have done this at a billion's evaluation, 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:06.480 which I think is absolutely absurd. I think some of 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.400 what is happening is not good for the industry. We 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:17.040 want you know, unhyped use cases. We want unhyped you know, transformations, augmentations. 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.239 You know, the real use cases here are when you 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.600 put people in AI together and I think of over 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.400 focus on the large language models, the size of them, 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.840 the you know, valuations of the companies. It's really distracting 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:32.320 from actually getting valued. 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.400 What about the way in which that built, that constructed. 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.800 May we come off a week where a lot of 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.200 ke CEOs thought leaders were out there in Washington thinking 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.960 about future regulation. How do you think about your role 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:44.879 informing that. 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.000 Yeah, well we already get RFPs that ask us about 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.960 the EU AI Act, Caroline, and it's not even law yet, 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:54.399 and so you know, we are enterprise first. 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:55.280 Bottoms up. 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:59.760 We've built for customers being able to audit our training 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.359 and really look at you know, if there is copyrighted 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:06.560 information in there, there isn't. I think the companies that 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.960 really make it in the enterprise have to think about 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.240 a world where regulation is here, and it's here pretty globally, 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:14.359 not just in Europe. 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.199 May really quickly what kind of roles are priority for 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:17.840 you to hire? 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:19.200 What kind of people do you need? 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.680 Ed literally everything. If you're in tech and you want 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:25.800 to work in AI, please email me. 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:29.760 Well, we won't ask you to give us your email 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:31.879 address on live television, but maybe you can go to 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.680 your Twitter and social media accounts. 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:34.400