The Briefing: Thurs., Sept. 3
Summary
KnowBe4 Inc., a cybersecurity startup that detects phishing attempts, is preparing for an initial public offering later this year or early next that would value it at more than $2 billion, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Ackman confirms he held early talks with Airbnb, Stripe about taking them public Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman told Bloomberg TV on Thursday that he’d had early talks with Airbnb, Stripe and other privately held startups about potentially taking them public through his special purpose acquisition company. Key investors included unnamed private medtech backers, family offices and the Technion Venture Capital fund. The company secured a deal with IMMOFINANZ, a commercial real estate firm, in December to rollout its platform across the group’s entire portfolio. Along those same lines, we interviewed Syntegra last week, which raised $3.1 million in seed funding to create synthetic health care datasets from patient data.