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Javier Avalos

Co-founder & CEO of Caplight

Javier Avalos is a seasoned professional with a diverse background in finance, business development, and entrepreneurship.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Occidental College.

Javier has held various high-ranking positions in notable organizations. He was the Co-founder & CEO at Caplight, Senior Vice President of Marketplace, Vice President of Marketplace, Senior Director of Marketplace, and Director of Business Development at Forge.

Prior to that, he gained valuable experience in investment banking at prestigious firms such as Deutsche Bank, Cowen and Company, and Merrill Lynch.

Javier also has a strong background in private equity and real estate, having served as a Private Equity Summer Intern at Centinela Capital Partners LLC and as the Founder and Partner at AMA Properties LLC.

His professional journey includes roles ranging from Investment Banking to Business Development and Entrepreneurship, showcasing his versatility and expertise across diverse fields.

Highlights

Jul 26 · linkedin

It's a common adage that private markets trail public markets, but I've never seen it as clearly represented than pg 3 of our 1H 2023 Pre-IPO Secondary Market Update. Attached!

Using Caplight Data, we saw pre-IPO valuations peak in early 2022, approximately 1 quarter after the Nasdaq's peak. Pre-IPO valuations then corrected for ~15 months before bottoming out in May 2023, approximately 2 quarters after the Nasdaq had bottomed.

Additional insights include:

  1. Closed transaction volume fell QoQ in Q1 and Q2 '23, but for the first time in 5 quarters the number of closed trades reported in Q2 increased QoQ.

  2. Q2 '23 bid-to-ask ratio was the closest to parity since 2022 (~40%-to-60%), indicating buyers are reentering the market.

  3. Closed secondary transactions are skewing smaller: $1.17M in Q2 '23 vs. $3.32M in Q1 '22, and look more retail in nature: 58% of the shares traded in Q2 '23 were common stock (typically held by private company employees).

  4. Investors are bidding 3 themes: 1) companies expected to be in the first wave of tech IPOs when the window reopens, 2) companies that have raised in the new-normal environment (i.e. post-June '22), 3) anything AI (duh).

All of this indicates that while investors may have started to reenter the pre-IPO secondary market, Q2 was more of a toe dip than a cannonball. We can't wait to see what the rest of 2023 has in store.

If you liked this report, thank Rusty McDonough, and be sure to signup at www.caplight.com.

May 11 · linkedin

I'm pleased to announce our partnership with The Information to contribute pre-IPO secondary market pricing data to their IPO Tracker!

I've been a personal subscriber to The Information for a long time and rely on Jessica E. Lessin and her team of reporters for reliable tech journalism.

It's humbling to think that Caplight can play a small part in contributing to that.

Expect many more collaborations like this piece from Kalley Huang earlier today! And if you want near real-time IPO tracking, subscribe to The Information Pro.

Thanks to Scott Thurm for the partnership, and Marc Perkins, CFA on the Caplight team. Much more to come.

https://lnkd.in/gtVzSmXY

Javier Avalos
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Location

San Francisco Bay Area