Private Markets: Ramp raises $200M, Teamworks secures $235M

This week, Ramp raised $200M in a Series E funding round, valuing the company at $16B, while Teamworks raised $235M in an oversubscribed Series F financing at a $1B-plus valuation.

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In other news, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI was reported to be in talks to raise $4.3B through an equity investment on top of the $5B it has recently been trying to borrow from debt investors, according to Bloomberg’s Carmen Arroyo and Jill Shah, citing information the company shared with investors who asked not to be identified because it is private. Bloomberg reported that the materials shared with investors indicate Musk’s company, which is responsible for the AI chatbot Grok, needs the new money, in part, because it has already spent most of what it previously raised. Between its founding in 2023 and when the debt sale was launched this year, xAI raised $14B via equity fundraising, according to the materials. However, as of March 31, only $4B of that was left on the company’s balance sheet, the report noted.

Some of the biggest capital raises by private companies this week include: 

Ramp – The financial operations platform announced its Series E financing, bringing its valuation to $16 billion. For the fifth time, a Ramp funding round was led by Founders Fund – the company’s first and largest investor. Total size was capped at $200M and included participation from Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners, General Catalyst, GIC, ICONIQ Growth, Khosla Ventures, Sands Capital, 8VC, Lux Capital, Stripes, 137 Ventures, Avenir Growth, and Definition Capital. Publicly traded companies in the space include Coupa (COUP), Bill.com (BILL), Fiserv (FI), Workday (WDAY), and Verifone (PAY).

Teamworks – The Operating System for Sports powering more than 6,500 elite sports teams globally announced it has secured $235M in an oversubscribed Series F financing led by returning investor Dragoneer Investment Group. This latest round, which closed at a pre-money valuation exceeding $1B, will fuel the company’s mission to advance AI-powered solutions across professional, collegiate, and Olympic sports programs, the company said. Publicly traded companies in the space include Genius Sports (GENI) and Sportradar (SRAD).

Applied Intuition – The provider of autonomy software for vehicles closed a $600M Series F fundraise and tender offer at a $15B valuation. This fresh round of funding, co-led by BlackRock (BLK)-managed funds and accounts and Kleiner Perkins, will propel Applied Intuition into its next phase of vehicle intelligence, deeper product expansion, and global team growth. Other new investors in the round include Franklin Templeton, Qatar Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Premji Invest, Stripes, Greycroft, BAM Elevate, and 137 Ventures. Existing investors participating in the round include Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Lux, BOND, Elad Gil, Addition, and Tribe Capital. Publicly traded companies in the space include Nvidia (NVDA), Mobileye (MBLY), Qualcomm (QCOM), and Aptiv (APTV).

Helsing – The German defense start-up raised EUR 600M in a Series D funding round. The round was led by Prima Materia, alongside existing investors Lightspeed Ventures, Accel, Plural, General Catalyst and SAAB and new investors BDT & MSD Partners. Publicly traded companies in the space include Northrop Grumman (NOC). 

Pano AI – The AI wildfire-detection start-up raised $44M in new funding round. The Series B round was led by Giant Ventures, with investors including Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, Initialized Capital and Salesforce Ventures also participating in the financing. Publicly traded companies in the space include Bridger Aerospace (BAER).

Unicorns to watch this week:

Safe Superintelligence – Operating in the AI sector, Safe Superintelligence has an estimated valuation of $32B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Alphabet (GOOGL).

Epic Games – Operating in the gaming space, Epic Games is valued at $31.5B. Publicly traded competitors include Activision Blizzard (MSFT), Electronic Arts (EA), Take-Two Interactive (TTWO), Nintendo (NTDOY), Ubisoft (UBSFF), and Sony (SONY).

Fanatics – Operating in the e-commerce/sports apparel sector, Fanatics has a valuation of $27B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Nike (NKE), Dick’s Sporting (DKS), and Amazon (AMZN).

Perplexity AI – Operating in the AI/chatbots space, Perplexity is valued at approximately $18B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN).

Shield AI – Operating in the Defense and autonomous drones space, Shield AI has an estimated $3B valuation. Publicly traded competitors include Palantir (PLTR) and AeroVironment (AVA).

IPOs to watch:

Klarna (KLAR) – Affirm’s (AFRM) “Buy Now, Pay Later” rival Klarna is expected to go public in 2025. In its last funding round back in 2022, Klarna was valued at $6.7B, but an IPO could value the fintech company at $15B-$20B. Klarna has retained Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan (JPM) and Morgan Stanley (MS) to lead the listing.

Stripe – The digital payments company is one of the most anticipated 2025 IPOs. While no specific date has been announced, many believe next year will be the one for Stripe’s public debut. 

Cerebras Systems – The AI chipmaker filed back in September to go public but no date has been set. Cerebras (CBRS) competes with Nvidia (NVDA) and it was valued at $4B back in 2021, seeking now to roughly double that in its IPO. 

Bolt – The ride-hailing and food delivery company has yet to file for an IPO, but it is expected to go public in 2025. The startup operates in more than 45 countries, primarily in Europe and Africa, and competes with Uber Technologies (UBER). 

Mindbody – The fitness and wellness software provider is targeting to go public in the second half of 2025. Back in August of last year, the company said it was aiming to make its public debut in the following 12-18 months. Goldman Sachs was retained as its lead banker. 

StubHub – With a market valuation estimated at $16.5B, the event-ticketing giant was expected to make a public debut this year, but after many delays, 2025 seems the most likely date. Stagnant market conditions and a lack of a major consumer IPOs pushed StubHub to continuously postpone its move to come public. 

Databricks – The maker of cloud-based data analytics and AI products might be eyeing an IPO in 2025. CEO Ali Ghodsi said that it would be “dumb to IPO (in 2024).” “The earliest theoretical possibility of an IPO would be (2025) and then there’s lock-up periods, so it would just be too long of a period for employees to get liquidity,” Ghodsi said at Axios’ AI Summit. 

“Private Markets” is The Fly’s new recurring series of stories on the latest moves in the private sector, largest unicorn companies and initial public offerings to watch. Fly subscribers, add $PRIVATE to your portfolio for alerts on breaking news in the startup and venture capital space.