Private Markets Sector
Goldman Sachs expanded its real estate management business with a $410 million acquisition of LCN Capital Partners, while tech firm Quantexa aims for a $3 billion public listing. Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz faces a DOJ antitrust probe into overlapping board seats, and Klarna stock plummeted 20 percent following a cut to its annual outlook.
The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted conditional approval for World Liberty Financial to establish a national trust bank. The newly formed World Liberty Trust Company will issue and redeem the firm's USD1 stablecoin in-house, taking over operations previously handled by BitGo Bank & Trust. The narrow charter authorizes the entity to manage reserves, custody digital assets, and settle payments, but excludes retail deposits and commercial lending. The OCC conditioned the approval on a minimum capital requirement of $20 million and other preopening terms. The decision immediately drew fierce pushback from lawmakers, with Senator Elizabeth Warren and nine colleagues introducing the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act in response to the approval.
British artificial intelligence firm Quantexa is weighing a multibillion-dollar stock market listing in either London or New York, joining a wave of tech companies bypassing domestic exchanges for deeper U.S. pools of capital. Chief Executive Officer Vishal Marria stated that the company has been IPO-ready since January but has not yet committed to a timeline or a definitive venue. Founded in 2016, the data analytics provider sells decision intelligence software to banks and government agencies for fraud detection and financial crime prevention, having previously reached a $2.6 billion valuation in a March 2025 Series F funding round. Meanwhile, minority shareholder Warburg Pincus has enlisted Citigroup to evaluate options for offloading its 9% to 10% stake in the firm. The potential secondary share sale remains in its early stages as Quantexa eyes a valuation north of $3 billion for any future public debut.
The Justice Department is investigating Andreessen Horowitz over whether its partners are improperly holding board seats at competing artificial intelligence and data companies. The nearly year-old antitrust probe centers on co-founder Ben Horowitz serving on the board of Databricks Inc. and general partner Martin Casado sitting on the board of Fivetran Inc. Both portfolio companies help businesses collect, organize, and analyze data, with their competitive overlap intensifying as Databricks expands into data ingestion. Investigators are examining the arrangement under Section 8 of the Clayton Act, a 1914 law that prohibits interlocking directorates among competing firms. Resolving such inquiries typically forces directors to step down from one of the overlapping boards, a remedy the agency previously applied to private equity firms like Thoma Bravo and Prosus. Andreessen Horowitz manages over $90 billion in assets and recently closed a $15 billion fund haul. The Justice Department has not reached a final decision on how to proceed.