Hi there, 

Here is this week’s hot or not.

Hot: Space tech

SpaceX is the #2 most valuable private tech company in the world, at $137B. 

And it’s raised over $9B in funding so far.

Where is the Elon Musk-led company headed? 

Beyond space exploration (its core revenue driver), the company is also pursuing opportunities on Earth in telecom and national security. 

Clients can dig into our SpaceX Strategy Map here.

Not: Valuations dissociated from reality

Fitness startup Tonal may take a nearly 90% valuation cut after failing to find a buyer.

Grocery delivery startup Good Eggs took a ~94% haircut last week.

If startups raise at dramatically lower valuations than their previous raises, earlier investors may see their stakes crushed.

Downward pressure on tech valuations means that fund performance for those that YOLO invested in 2021 at 100x ARR ain't gonna be pretty.

But in good news, VCs investing today should see attractive valuations.

Hot: JP Morgan in fintech
 

Last week, JP Morgan acquired investment analytics platform Aumni as it looks to deepen its ties with the VC ecosystem. 

JP Morgan is one of the most active US bank investors in fintech.

It’s built its fintech portfolio across capital markets tech, payments, wealth management, and more as it looks to fend off disruption.

Since 2020, the bank’s fintech acquisitions include: 

• Global Shares (equity management software)

• Nutmeg (personal finance app)

• OpenInvest (ESG investing platform)

• 55ip (advisor tech)

• Renovite (payments startup)

More analysis in this JP Morgan Strategy Map.

Not: Mental health tech funding

2021’s mental health tech funding boom is increasingly looking like an anomaly. 

As in many sectors across tech, investors are becoming more discerning. 

Not a single unicorn has emerged in the sector since 2021, when 9 joined the club. 

Was mental health tech a bull market phenomenon?

Activist investor Elliott Management recently announced that it will not pursue director nominations for Salesforce.

The activist investor cited Salesforce’s “profitable growth framework” and “clear focus on value creation” as factoring into its decision after solid Q4 earnings.

Starboard Value and Dan Loeb’s Third Point are the other activists in Salesforce. We previously covered the likely divestitures that these activist investors might push for at Salesforce here.

Also, check out our Salesforce Strategy Map (and the growth plans that fell under scrutiny) here.

Earnings call mentions of cryptocurrency (or crypto) declined amid macroeconomic turbulence and high-profile crypto bankruptcies in 2022.

Mentions fell to 537 in Q4’22, marking a 35% drop from their peak of 832 in Q4’21.

Dive deeper into crypto’s chaotic year in our State of Blockchain 2022 Report.

And discover what’s next for the space in this briefing.

Also, has anyone figured out a viable and valuable use case for Web3 yet? Still waiting on that one.

I love you. 

Anand 

@asanwal 

P.S. Headcount trend data is coming to CB Insights. Want to be the first to know when it goes live? Sign up here.