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07/2026
"Freidheim likewise said private equity represents the most realistic source of competing bids, although a transaction of PayPal's size would probably require a sponsor consortium." and "The headline is about payments, but the underlying story is the consolidation of payments infrastructure," said Isabelle Freidheim
06/2026
We witnessed the first AI price war break out last night before a single prospectus has been filed or has been made public, so the markets are starting to learn the difference between a great company and a great offering as we discover information that has been kept private for for so long. So this is a very exciting time, but it's also an exciting time because the window for IPOs is now open, officially open. We've had a great first quarter, the best, in fact, in 5 years. We're over 20 IPOs, almost 10 billion raised, and unsurprisingly, large companies tend to go first when a window reopens. So this is this is the typical pattern throughout history, and in this time, it's more centered around tech. So, so it's not just a boom; it's a quality clearing market for a better foundation at this point in time, with companies that are, for the most part, profitable and in AI specifically, not quite yet profitable, but the returns are real and have materialized.
06/2026
L'intérêt des investisseurs pour SpaceX via des secondaires et des ETF avant même une éventuelle introduction en Bourse témoigne de la force de la demande pour les grandes entreprises technologiques privées, applaudit Isabelle Freidheim, fondatrice et dirigeante du fonds d'investissement new-yorkais Athena Capital. Le génie du capitalisme américain s'illustre dans la capacité à mobiliser des capitaux massifs autour d'innovations dont le potentiel est encore largement prospectif, ajoute-t-elle
04/2026
“If the IPO does go well, it will really validate higher private-market prices for the concentrated group of equivalent names,” said Isabelle Freidheim, founder and managing partner of Athena Capital, which isn’t an investor in Cerebras. “That public-market indication will trickle into the secondary market.”
Isabelle Friedheim, founder and managing partner of private equity firm Athena Capital, said it will take some time for the economy to stabilize. Friedheim noted that venture investors need liquidity, given how many so-called unicorns—private firms with a valuation above $1 billion— have been waiting to go public. There are over 1,565 unicorns globally, more than triple the 494 startups that were valued at $1 billion or more in 2019, according to software platform Eqvista.
"I do think we are starting to see a recovery. The IPO volume in the U.S. is up in 2024 [with] Q1 and Q2 up about 12 percent. Proceeds are up as well, which is encouraging, and we're starting to see larger deals such as Reddit, Stripe on file, Nvidia. This show that investors are starting to indicate interest in companies going public and then deploying capital into tech companies in particular, but they're nonetheless prudent, and that's why we're only seeing at this point still larger size companies because they have a better chance of success. And I think we're going to continue to see that for the remainder of the year with likely a higher velocity of deals in 2025 after the elections."
"With the elections coming up, there's so much uncertainty that few companies would want to try out for an IPO in this environment in any of the holidays, so it is expected that the IPO market will recover, given a backdrop of lower inflation, lower interest rates, and more confidence and more risk appetites from investors, especially equity market investors who expect yield and equities to recover. Not just in in probably not right away in Q1, but probably in Q2, we anticipate to see a stronger market. There are a lot of companies that have filed for IPOs. There's a huge backlog, and very much a need for liquidity in the private markets."
"The capital markets are desperate for exits. We, in our industry, venture capital and the private markets exist for the opportunities to take companies public and exit our investments. And there's a huge backlog of companies that have been waiting to go public for years now. There's there've been a few that came out in the fall, and we're seeing now a number of filings again. But we are not back. And if we take a step back, the markets are actually pretty good. We hit an all-time high a few days ago. Economic indicators are good. Payroll, GDP growth, inflation is starting to come down, and we're starting to see the effects of rate cuts that happened a year ago. So overall, the economy is good."